The Art of Chaos

Let's admit it.  We all live in some type of chaos.  I'm not talking about out right mess, but we will get to that in a moment, but I'm talking more about the chaos of everyday life.  The traffic jam that you get stuck in on your way to work that makes it so you barely clock in on time.  The fight that you have with your family member / significant other / best friend that is about nothing yet there's something clearly wrong that neither of you can put your finger on.  The good chaos is there too.  The getting a project done at the last moment that you think is rubbish but your boss or teacher praises to the high heavens.  The making a wrong turn and finding a new way home that takes five minutes less than the route you were taking.  There's good, bad, and neutral chaos, just like there's a load of other things.  What we really need to do is figure out a type of balance to it.

When I think about chaos, I think about messes, so let's go to that example to flesh out what I'm talking about.  I admit that my room is an outright mess.  I have things here and there.  Some are in piles and some things are on a shelf.  Some are on the floor, because there's no other place to put them, and some are just in boxes throughout the room.  However, I know where things are because, to me, it is organized chaos.  I know that the pile to the right side of my desk has planner stickers that I use in a pinch when I'm done with the current stack of them.  I know the second pile, more in the middle of the desk, is a mix of a chapter I printed to edit and a bunch of journals.  The pile that's on my three drawer file cabinet has two books that are for research and a pouch that's filled with important mail that I need to file.  I can go on, but I think you get the idea.  Some people just see and think about the mess versus the fact that, if I clean up the mess, I have no idea where anything is.  I'll put everything away just to get it all out again when I need it.  So the chaos stays so I don't go insane trying to figure out where the hell I put the chapter I'm editing or the planner stickers I need.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with writing.  Well, to me, it has less to do with writing and more to do with how you plan to write.  Some people use software, such as Scrivener, and everything's in a proper file.  Everything has a place and you can just open it and go exactly to where you want.  I'm glad that works for some people but I have a hard time with it.  For me, it is easier to open up Google Documents and work there to outline my novel.  I have different starter documents - ones that could probably easily transfer over to Scrivener, and in different file folders once I create them that go to what project they're for.  Yet, there are times when I'll create a basic stats document for my novel - title, genre, summery, basic characters - and then I don't organize it.  But I can find it, just as easily as I find the journal that's buried under several different papers in my room, because it is organized to what I need.

That's the art of chaos.  When you bend it to your rules and make it your own.  That's when you can own your chaos and make it work with you to whatever you want to do.  If that's plotting a novel, then you can do that.  If it's making sure that you get from point A to point B quicker, you can do that too.  The point I'm trying to make, if you've gotten this far dear reader, is that chaos is not as random as we think.  Chaos is organized and organized is chaos if you know how to work both.  If you find that, then you have balance.

The question I leave you with is how do you live your life?  Does it seem like chaos to an outsider but completely organized to you?  Or is it just chaos and you need to be organized to get anything done?  I know I fall under the first question but I can't wait to hear what you think, dear readers.

Until next time, have a wonderful day.