Organization? WHAT Organization?

From SXC by franckb - This is NOT Veronica

Now is a particularly good time for me to be addressing this topic as I'm juggling one book just released, one book coming out on September 16th and one to be released in October. Two of the books are self published, which means I'm the go-to person for all things from the cover to the blurb to the promo to why isn't the listing on All Romance eBooks showing up properly??? Oh and I wrote the books LOL, did I mention that? I'm also in final edits on my January release...

I do have a free lance editor and on my self pubbed novels I have the copy editing and formatting done by the e-Book Formatting Fairies, who I looove so much, I can't begin to express the warmth and zeal of my feelings!

Ok enough whining and over-the-top emoting - I'm supposed to talk about how I organize all this mad activity.  To continue the circus metaphor that sort of took root off and on here at Word Whores this week I guess I'm the ringmaster but I feel like the high wire act. (Visualize my Muse in purple spangly tights...) Why the high wire act you ask? Well, I have a tendency to launch myself into space on one task or another and not really consider all the other subtasks that may be necessary. Kind of like a short-lived aerialist who forgot to make sure someone would be there to catch her at the other side of the Big Top! Thank goodness for safety nets.

I'm not a spreadsheet person. (Sorry, Jeffe!)  Pretty much I operate from a plain old To Do List, which has no particular order or priority to the entries. (Sincere admiration from me to Marcella Burnard for her P1, P2 prioritization system, explained in this space earlier this week.) I write the items down on my lavender lined paper as they occur to me, or the tasks will flit away like hummingbirds, maybe to escape forever. (Who was that book blogger in Spain who offered to review DANCER???) I combine the mundane - "buy Fancy Feast at the grocery store" - with the author-stuff - "put books up on Xin Xii". I sometimes write things in just so I can cross them off! I do stuff that wasn't even ON the list (make u-turn, buy powerball tix at the liquor store with the big neon lotto sign about how high the jackpot has gotten)....

But you know what? This works for me. Somehow I keep the planes, trains and spaceships running on time in my life, I meet the deadlines, I get the books out there, I write this blog faithfully at the last minute every Friday night LOL.

I think that's the secret sauce to organization - you have to find what works for you, which may be very detailed and precise, or slap dash and always on the edge of crisis...kinda like writing itself - every author has to figure out what works for them.

(Runs away to gleefully cross "Write Word Whores Blog" off the purple page...)