X marks the spot. On the List.

Listening to: Lana Del Rey - Paradise

Mood: Driven

Hi. My name is Rachelle and I have a problem. Well, it’s not really a problem. More like a personality quirk. You see, I’m an organization freak. Seriously. I love lists. I love organizing stuff. There’s something about making a To Do list for work, an editing checklist when I’m making revisions to my manuscripts, even a packing list for when I travel that I find so fulfilling. When the Hubs and I leave town, we have a dog/house sitter who stays with our furry kids in our home. It doesn’t matter how many times the dog sitter has done it, I still give him the same manual of instructions, complete with diagrams of where each dogs get their food bowls placed during feeding time and where I store certain things. My Books, DVD’s, and CD’s are all alphabetized. My clothes are categorized in my closet by type and then color. Hell, even my shoes are organized in clear boxes with labels.

See, I told you I was a freak. It’s charming, really. Or so the Hubs says.

Anyway, part of my being so organized has to do with my competitive nature. I’m a goal-oriented person. I like to be good at everything I do. I love striving for something and when I achieve it, I love the feeling I get upon completion. It gives me a little rush. And it’s this little personality quirk that helps me through my rough patches while I’m working on a story. Because even when I’m stuck on something, when I can’t get past a scene, I press on. If I tell myself I’m going to write 3,000 words today, I do it. If I sit down and said, “I’m going to edit three chapters tonight,” then I do it. I want to keep improving my craft. I want to write the kind of books that people can’t put down. I want to be an excellent writer. Then I want to get even better than that.

So I keep making goals. I make checklists for the chapters I’m editing to make sure I don’t miss a thing during revisions. I create character bios when I start a new story. I outline to give myself a general direction to go in my story (though sometimes the story takes me somewhere else completely, and this is the time when I throw organization to the wind and just let my mind work).

Yes, my name is R.E. and I’m an organization freak. I’m damned good at it, too.