The Curse of Disorder

Kristen King

by Cathy Rogers

www.inkthinkerblog.com — Which came first: a disorganized soul who discovers at age 42 she is able to express her thoughts through writing, or a semi-successful scribe who is unable to find the editor’s number or that most recent article revision? Surely a well-organized writer exists; but I won’t be winning that award any time soon.

As long as I am writing, there’s little hope of a paperless society. As a community news columnist and freelance article writer, I possess a plethora of folders currently occupying the seats of my dining chairs, the floor of my home office, and the back seat of my Honda. Some folders are even filed away; admittedly not ones I use often.

Dozens of paper scraps containing magazine article ideas, interview contact names/numbers, and writing website URL’s are loose in my purse, stuck in writing reference books, and stashed in those beloved folders. Articles on school events, local business profiles, and magazine submissions (all in various stages of revision) float around me like dust particles. Although I’m technologically-literate and ecologically-minded, I still seem to have innumerable paper copies weighing down the ever-heavier book bag I carry each day to my non-writing job.

With my multiple audiences and markets, the notes naturally get mixed together. For example, on a magazine subscription card is both a reminder to query a magazine and note of a company whose profits support breast cancer research (which I’ll need, of course, when I write about local breast cancer events).

The curse of the attention-deficit writer! Want to know the flip side of this dilemma? Writing this essay was a piece of cake. No research was necessary other than thumbing through the folders. The down side is I created a new “to-do” list.

Now where should I put it?

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Cathy Rogers is a freelance writer from East Tennessee. She writes community news and special assignment articles for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Additionally, she has had essays on Southern culture published online and in regional magazines.

Although this article was published by Kristen King, the original author retains all copyright and should be contacted for reprint requests.