It’s January and it’s Monday. Beginnings make me feel like it’s time to hurry up and get moving. I’m a morning person (when I’ve slept well) and mornings make me feel that way, too. Hurry up! Go running and eat breakfast and hurry to your computer! So much to do! (Or on more embarrassing days – Hurry and get to your computer! What do you mean it’s dinner time? I haven’t even taken a shower, let along exercised or anything else!)

There’s so much to do because there’s so much to learn. I spent all day last Thursday just trying to read through some of the online group posts about writing and publishing and self-publishing, and then clicking the links to the great posts those people had found, which led to more links and reading more posts. Sheesh! How’s a girl to get any writing done?

But there’s a lot more to being a 21^st century author than there was to being a 1950s author. Not only do you have to learn a lot, you have to do a lot. I took Kristen Lamb’s class on Becoming a Brand two weeks ago and now I’m trying to do everything I’ve been learning about. I’m following more people on Twitter and Facebook, retweeting and replying, and commenting on blogs. I think I did a week’s worth of social media in one day.

I saw some immediate results (I tripled my Twitter followers and got my own blog up and rolling again), so I downloaded the Kindle samples of both of Kristen’s books, Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer and We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. I loved the samples, so I bought the books. I’m reading both at the same time now, and trying to apply something new every day. Wow.

There are a gazillion great blogs out there and I read a lot of them last week! (This week, I swear, is going to be more about writing and balance.) Instead of trying to explain everything I read, I’ll just give you some short descriptions and you can decide what you can use.

Oh, and in case I lose you somewhere amongst all these links, let me remind you that Author Crush Month starts on Wednesday! Yay!! We love Author Crush Month, and we know you do, too! We’ve got some really great guests this month talking about their process, their craft, their journey. Be sure to stop by every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in February.

Also, we will have a special guest joining us on the first Tuesday of every month beginning in March. You’re going to love her! (You might even already know her!)

And tune in tomorrow as we welcome Janice Cantore to talk with us about her new book, Accused. If you remember, Janice has been struggling to sell her books with a small press but last summer signed a 3-book deal with a major publisher! Her new book releases February 1^st. Woo-hoo!

And now to my list o’ links:

Elizabeth Spann Craig explains how she uses Google Calendar to stay organized

An online self-publishing conference! I’m waiting by my Inbox for an email with details about registration costs.

The CEO of Smashwords gives us his thoughts on self-publishing in 2011

A Smashwords blog post about the Amazon Select program

I took an awesome online class in November about helping your brain work better, and the teachers wrote this guest post

I’m signed up for another online class next month on how to write cozy mysteries, and here is an article by the teacher (I’m hoping it will help me bring my superhero romantic comedies up a level)

A great craft post from Jody Hedlund on how to make your book play out like a movie

Another self-published author, PJ Sharon, shares her 2011 numbers

From Kristen Lamb’s blog, What’s the Problem with FREE?

Sharpen Your Blogging Habits, a 4-part series from Kristin Nador

Which could lead you to this brilliant post on creating better tag lines for your blog  (I just changed my tag line for my own blog. What do you think? Better? Not quite right yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!)

From Bob Mayer, a post that explains why I’ve never dreamed of being on a bestselling list, I dream of selling books for the rest of my life 

From Writer Beware, The Fine Print of iBooks Author, free software from Apple to create ebooks that can only be sold in the iTunes store

And the blog author’s reply to common misconceptions about what he wrote

Books I’m reading: Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer; We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media; Dollars and Sense: The Definitive Guide to Self-Publishing Success

If you’d tried to visit this blog on Monday or Tuesday and tried to get here via some Google association, you would have gotten a big “Warning” sign before going to our website. Someone had inserted two lines of wayward script into one of our blogs, causing Google to flag our site.

What a way to start the week!

And worse for me, I had started sending out requests for this year’s Author Crush (see tab above) and my biggest fear was that one of my favorite authors would check us out when Google was telling the world that we had a questionable site.

*Biggest Fear Realized*

Fortunately, this particular author sent me a note telling me to let her know when things got straightened out. Note to future author self: Give grace to the bloggers! Sometimes they get hacked.

Lessons learned this week:

• Keep all programs updated.

• Keep regular backups.

• Use really difficult passwords.

• Call tech support sooner than later.

• Trust tech support even when they want you to press a button you don’t think you should press.

• Don’t stress-eat too much chocolate.

• Sign up for Google WebMaster Tools—you’ll have to anyway if you get hacked because you’ll need to send a request to Google to revisit your site and lift the ban. You’ll need to prove you own the site and they give you several options for this. If you need help, there are some videos on You Tube to walk you through it.

Now, I can happily go back to writing on my novel which is a way-more pleasurable task than hunting down an attack. And a simple reminder from Solomon, whose words I have been reading this week:

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

-Ecclesiastes 1:14 in the beautiful old English of the King James Bible

Tradition!
(Sung like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof)

So, this year Stephanie is going to be blogging about the emotional journey as a writer and how sometimes writing can be just for you and no one else. Kitty is going to be talking about the self-publishing adventure: how-to’s, stats, and everything else. Me? I’m sticking with my focus on traditional publishing. Same old, same old. What will my blogs look like this year?

I’m thinking lots of writing pep talks to remind me (and you) that traditional publishing is mostly a slow business but that the effort to get there is worth it. Aspiring writers don’t get a whole lot of encouragement:

• “Aren’t you published YET?!” –or—

• “Sorry, this isn’t for me.”–or worse—

• *crickets*

I’d like to be a source of weekly writer love.

I’ll give tips on establishing writing routines so the hard parts of writing become easier over time. (Um, like actually writing instead of reading about writing!)

I’d also really, really like to blog about how a writer transitions from “aspiring” to “under contract,” but I can only control so much of my writer’s journey. I’ll blog about that too.

If you’ve been reading Routines for Writers for any length of time, these three pathways that Stephanie, Kitty, and I are taking will not be a surprise. They have been the topics on our hearts lately; we’re just going to dive full force into them. We hope you enjoy the shift in nuance and continue to pull ideas for your own writing journey.

In January of this year, I posted this blog about organizing the upcoming year’s writing goals. Starting January 16, I’m once again teaching this 4-week online class, Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for the Writer, and I’d love to see you there. This is one of the exercises we’ll be doing in the class. I hope it helps you get started toward organizing your time and achieving your writing goals!

This month we’re all making the handoff between last year’s partially accomplished goals and this year’s fresh new and exciting goals. In the online class I’m teaching this month on goal setting and time management for writers, we’re using an annual planning calendar to find out how many days we really have for writing. Once we know that number and plan around it, we can create goals that can be achieved with a minimum of stress and guilt.

Take a 12-month calendar you can use just for writing. There are pros and cons for using the large laminated year-at-a-glance type, and the monthly flip calendar, so decide which one you prefer and dive in. Begin by crossing off all the days you already know you won’t be available for writing. That list will be different for each of us – birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, public holidays, kids’ school events, etc.

When you’ve crossed out everything you can think of, decide how many sick days you want to plan for. Also choose a number of days for emergencies. (The number will depend on your situation, the people who depend on you at work and home, the number of days last year that something came up unexpectedly, etc.) Count the total number of days you still have available on the calendar, then subtract the sick days and emergency days. This is the number of days you have for the year that you can plan your writing around.

You may also want to plan for some catch-up padding, especially if you’re chronically behind. One way to pad your time is to cross off the last three open days of the month, every month. That automatically gives you a full month of “extra time” for the year – 3 times 12 equals 36 days.

Let’s say you end up with 200 days in 2011 that you can devote X number of hours each day to your writing. Now you need to look at your goals and break them down into the number of hours each will take. For instance, if you can write 500 words a day without a problem, and you plan to write the first draft of a category romance of 50,000 words, it will take you about 100 days, or half of your year. If it takes you twice as long to edit and revise as it does to pound out the first draft, you need another 200 days.

That means you could produce a 50,000 word book every 18 months without stress or guilt. And by stress and guilt I mean feeling like you should be doing something else when you’re writing, or feeling like you should be writing when you’re doing something else. That is the kind of situation this type of planning can help you avoid. After all, you crossed off the holidays and vacation days and birthdays that you wanted to focus on. You’re free!

Now you’ll have to look at all of your goals for the year – which may also include showering every day, sleeping for 6-8 hours a night, driving to the grocery store, etc. – and figure out if you have more goals than can be accomplished in 52 168-hour weeks. If you have too many goals for the next 12 months, you’re setting yourself up for failure. But if you can do the math today and see that before it happens, you can make changes now and end up with a plan that truly can be accomplished.

Good luck!

One of my annual writing routines is to figure out in December or January what I want to work to accomplish in the new year. It takes me a little while to figure it out because I need to make sure I’m not just creating a big To Do list. And historically I’ve set unachievable goals or made no plan for follow through, so I was always disappointed in myself at the end of the year. Then I learned about S.M.A.R.T. goals. My productivity and self-esteem have soared!

I haven’t yet taken the time to figure out the right wording to make these goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely – I’ll be working on that in the next couple of weeks. But here are my goals in a general sense for 2012:

Top 5 Goals

• Self-publish my romantic comedy, Love at the Fluff N Fold
• Self-publish a second novel, either another romantic comedy in the same series, my superhero book, or a YA I’ve been working on. Depending on which friend I listen to, I have strong support for any of those being the next book. LOL!
• Self-publish a short nonfiction book on what I’m teaching in my online class next month, Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for Writers
• Self-publish a short nonfiction book on the business aspects of growing your writing career
• Create and stick to a budget for my writing business, and one for my personal life

Secondary 5 Goals

• Successfully begin and complete a change in direction in my blog topics for 2012 here at Routines for Writers, focusing on self-publishing and how I’m looking for wisdom in my spiritual life (We’ll tell you more about this next month!)
• Update my author web site in a way that I enjoy and that readers will enjoy
• Learn about and implement promotional activities for all of my books, including building a quarterly newsletter
• Focus on and create an efficient office, so it works no matter what country I’m in or how often I move
• A yet-to-be-determined mystery goal!

I’m still trying to finish a few of my 2011 goals, (see my post about those last week) specifically getting my romantic comedy, Little Miss Lovesick, into print. But I’m trying to balance my work with the fact that I’m home with family and friends for the first time in 2 1/2 years and I want to enjoy them as much as possible in case we move again.

Have you written down your 2012 goals yet? Have you tried to word them in such a way that they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely? If you’d like a little help with goals and time management, tailoring a system that will work specifically for you, sign up for my online class. It’s $30 and runs January 16 – February 12.

Just for fun, since you probably don’t have any weight loss goals for December – LOL! – give yourself a Christmas cookie or a piece of fudge or pie for every goal you finalize this month. I think five main goals and five secondary goals works wonderfully. And that’s only ten cookies after all. Plenty of time to work them off with January’s health goals!

This time of year I’m always thinking about what I’m going to work on next. Will I sign up for NaNoWriMo? Will I write something new or edit something I need to finish? If you’re like my friend Betsy, you might be wondering if you should work on a new novel (she’s nearly finished with the latest one) or should she work on a nonfiction book idea she’s had for years?

As soon as she said “nonfiction,” I was all but jumping around in my chair. I self-published my first novel and will self-publish more over the next few months. But I’ve also got a few nonfiction book ideas that I can’t wait to write and self-publish as ebooks. If you didn’t know it already, word on the ‘Net is that you can make more money with nonfiction books right now than with fiction. You can not only sell more copies, you can set a higher price point.

One of the books I want to write is how to properly run your writing business. And from a business standpoint, it would be a good idea for me to intersperse nonfiction books in among the fiction books in my product line. So taking my own advice, I should be thinking long and hard about writing the business book during NaNo.

Yes, it’s National Novel Writing Month. But wasn’t the point to set aside time to do something we never take time to do? Something we want to do and believe we might be good at? Something we think we’d really enjoy?

Betsy hasn’t done NaNo before and she asked me how I make up my mind when deciding which project to work on. I told her about how much fun it is to get inspiring emails from famous authors every week, how much I love competing with my friends when I see they’ve only written a few hundred words more than me, and watching the little graph grow as I write more. The encouragement, and the worldwide energy, those are the reasons I love signing up for NaNo.

So I told Betsy that she should write the book that she needs the most encouragement on. Work on the book that you most need that extra energy to get you through the first draft.

Remember my am-I-or-aren’t-I-going-to-move predicament? If you have something like that in your life, another way to decide which book to work on is to ask yourself which one will be less stressful for you. I don’t know how much I’ll get done in November if I have to move across the ocean. But one way or another, I have to keep doing all the business “stuff” that small business owners have to do. Plus I’m teaching my goal setting and time management class for writers again in January, and I’m adding in information on running your small business. So making notes and writing about what I’m doing and what experts suggest will actually help keep me focused. It will help me to pull several similar strands together so that when I’m working on one thing, I’m actually getting several things done.

If I have enough time, I might just work on both books! I’ll write on my novel in the morning, and the business book in the afternoon. After all, small business owners learn how to multi-task in ways that work for their personalities as well as their businesses. Yup, the more I think about it, the more I’m considering that last option. I guess I’ll decide for sure when I know if I have to make time for packing, too!  :)

Since I’m going to self-publish my novel Little Miss Lovesick next month, I’m doing a lot of reading and research on all the things that need to be done. In Zoe Winters’ book, Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author, she suggests that authors remember they are running a business.

My little business school heart sang when I read that. She’s so right, but often creative people ignore the business side of things. What we all need to remember is that it doesn’t need to be difficult. A little bit of planning and organization is better than none at all.

For instance, the first quick budget only took me about half an hour (after I did the research, maybe two to three hours altogether). Looks like I’ll be able to publish the ebook version of my book for under $600. I’ll create a 2012 budget that will include the costs of contacting an attorney to decide about the form of business I want to use, forming an LLC, buying ISBNS, and the expenses involved in self-publishing two or more additional books.

The production schedule seemed more difficult for me. (Isn’t figuring out how long it will take us to write the next book difficult for lots of writers?) So I broke it down into parts. The first part includes just getting Little Miss Lovesick up for sale. I broke that down into a list of what all needs to get done for the book to be ready to publish. I figured out when I’ll need to decide for certain on the cover art, when I’ll need the completed cover, when I’ll need the final polish and copy edits done, etc. My production schedule will be tweaked as I use it, which will make the schedule for the next book more accurate.

For the second section of the production schedule, I have a rough idea of what needs to be done when for the next book to be completed. I have an idea for the covers in a series of related books, and I’ve planned a photo shoot with some friends to create the photo art for all the books over a weekend. I’ll revise this schedule based on how I do with Little Miss Lovesick, see if I have a good idea of how long things will take.

And of course, since John is almost done with Happy Feet 2, I have to plan the time it takes to pack and move into that schedule. We don’t know yet if John’s next job will be in Australia, New Zealand or back in America, but I know how long it’s taken in the past to make an intercontinental move so I’ll use that for now.

Why a production schedule when I don’t have a contract from an outside company forcing me to complete my work on time? Because it’s part of creating a successful business. And that’s what I want. It’s not necessary for every writer; we all have different goals for our writing. But if you’re serious about turning your writing into your paying day job, it’s something you need.

The great thing about setting up writing routines – or any kind of routine – is that you can set things on auto-pilot and they just keep going. Until something falls on the tracks and disrupts them.

Since May, my life has been full to bursting with routine busters. The last six weeks of my master’s degree program were a mad rush of homework. The morning after my last class, I flew to the U.S. for 3 1/2 weeks for three different writer’s events (culminating in New York City at the Romance Writers of America’s national conference!). On the way back to Sydney, I picked up my Mom and she visited us for four weeks. A few days into her visit, John and I decided that my career could wait one more month to get re-started after college. I was never going to have this time with my mom again and that was more important than hurrying back to work.

Mom left, I took a couple days to relax and re-focus, then I started back up again. The first few days were okay, but the massive amounts of undone household chores loomed in the background. Still, I plowed on. Then a letter came from the government about a form we needed to file with them. That took the better part of two days over a week to deal with. (Ah, good ole government paperwork!)

Then some food got spilled on the couch cushions. I’d been meaning to take the cover off the couch and wash it for months, but I kept putting it off because I was busy doing other important things. Well, if I’ve got to wash one cushion cover, I might as well wash all of them and be done with it. Alas! The IKEA covers can be washed – and in hot water, no less – but can’t be tumble dried. They can get hot in water but can’t get hot in air? Oka-ay. So they’re drying on a rack now. But wait for it – they have to be hot-ironed before going back on.

Sigh. This was not how my day was supposed to go. This was not how my writing career was supposed to go!

On the other hand, after a productive work morning yesterday, my friend called me and said, “What are you doing?!” She’d been sick and housebound and now she sounded GREAT. And she wanted to get out of the house. And we missed each other. And we were only going to go to the mall to pick up two or three things. But so long as we were there, we should look for a couple things she needed for her trip to France. (I know, right?! Paris!) And since I was with her, I could play with her toddler while she tried on clothes.

And hey, since it’s raining, why don’t we go pick up our husbands from work (they work together on Happy Feet 2) so they don’t have to walk in the rain. And since it was raining, the traffic was a bear, so we still didn’t get home till after 7pm. Then there was no couch to sit on because the cushion covers were still air-drying. So my romantic husband took all our other pillows from the house and piled them up on the floor and we had a little chocolate picnic while we watched TV. At that point, writing routines were totally not on my radar! (Hey, since I write a lot of romance, I consider this research time. I totally forgot about you guys and this blog! LOL!)

So where does that leave me?

At the beginning of a new day. I think God created days and nights so we could always take a break and start again. I really do. So today is a new day. I’m writing this at the very beginning of a new day in Sydney, even though it’s the middle of the day in the States. (It’s tomorrow here! Isn’t that cool?!) When I’m done writing this, I’m going to hit restart on my old daily routine I used to have, my First Five (exercise and shower, make the bed, put away last night’s cleaned dishes, load the washing machine, read my Bible).

Then I’m going to work for two hours so that I’ll continue my commitment to put my career first. But then I’m going to spend the rest of the day getting all that “stuff” done that is making me crazy and taking part of my attention away from my work. (You know what I mean, you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, but you’re thinking about everything else that needs to be done.) I’ll iron those couch cushion covers and remake the couch. I’ll vacuum up the feathers that came out of the cushions, and do the rest of the apartment since I’m at it. I’ll clean up and put away all the half-done, half-put away stuff that’s been hanging around from as far back as June.

And then I’m determined to sit down and create a First Five for writing. I’ve been talking about it for eight months. I just haven’t figured out what the first five parts of my writing routine are yet. Possibly because I haven’t been in a place where I can really have a career writing routine yet. But that day is TODAY! LOL!

So what about you? Do you have certain things you do to get into your writing headspace? Are you like me, trying to create a routine but not figuring it out yet?

Note: I keep forgetting to tell you about my Kitty Bucholtz web site and the things I’m discussing over there. But I wanted to let you know that tomorrow I’ll post my first review of an ebook on how to make and publish ebooks. I’m going to self-publish my novel Little Miss Lovesick next month  and I want to share what I’m learning with my friends. So if you’re interested in that subject, stop on by!

Each week, I try to think up something I’ve found useful in my writing life to share with you. This week I need your help.

I met with my friend Betsy yesterday to write down our goals. We were in the UTS Master of Arts in Creative Writing program together for the last year and a half, and now both of us need to hit the restart button on our careers. One of my goals for this week is “Organize my computer files.” But I don’t know how to do it.

The first five years of writing, it was pretty easy to keep things organized. I had one computer and a box of colored diskettes. I was writing a few magazine articles per year, and I worked on a couple of books each year. Not that much to keep track of. Mostly, when I finished something, it was never looked at again. But as time went by, I wrote more and more. Sometimes I’d send something out more than once to try to sell reprint rights.

Then two years ago I moved to another country again, and in the busyness of the process, I let my organization slip a bit. I saved my books and other writing files in multiple locations “just in case.” But then I started losing track of which copy I’d worked on and which copy was now an “old” copy.  Then I started school again and things got even crazier. Now I not only had a file for my superhero book under “Writing” but I had another copy of several chapters under “School.” And not all together either. Each chapter that I worked on during class was saved in that class’s subfolder.

I bought a desktop computer after my first semester because working all day on my laptop was killing my neck, back and hands. But by the time the iMac arrived and was set up in my office, school had started again and I was focused more on keeping up with my homework than trying to understand the best way to file everything. Because now I had two computers, and the Apple people had copied all my files to the new computer at my request. Sometimes I used the laptop to do homework (and blogging and email), and sometimes I used the desktop. I might work on the most current file on the one computer, or the other – but it turns out it wasn’t always the same file.

Sometimes I remembered to save the work to the MobileMe “cloud” that I was trying to learn more about. Sometimes I was in a hurry and just saved to wherever was quickest. Mostly now, I have no idea where the most current version of any file is located. And I know for sure that some files have X changes made and saved on one computer, and Y changes made and saved on the other computer. Yes, I made a real mess of things. So now I have two computers with innumerable files to re-organize. I feel overwhelmed when I try to think up a plan to get everything in its place. And I’ll need a plan to stay organized, as well.

I know that iCloud is coming in the Fall according to the Apple web site. I expect it’s similar to MobileMe, which I already have (though iCloud is free with the newest operating system, and MobileMe is a paid subscription service). But here’s my question – if I put all my important files in the cloud, can I definitely access the most current (and only??) version even if I’m not connected to the Internet? My worry is that I won’t be able to get to my (only?) copy of my book or other file that I need if my Internet goes down. I know I can put files in Dropbox, but it’s the same question – what if I can’t access the Internet?

I think that MobileMe saves a copy to my MobileMe iDisk on the desktop of my iMac and the desktop of my MacBook…but I’m not sure. If that’s the case, I think I’ll be safe to work on a file even if the Internet is down – so long as I only work on it on one computer.

So…what do you think? Can I be rescued?  :)

I think I know the first couple of steps:

1. Bring my laptop into my office, connect it to it’s backup drive, and backup both computers. (They each have their own backup drive.) I have Time Machine on both Macs, so I’ll always be able to access files on the backup drive that I later delete from the computers.
2. Start with the most recent files, the school files. Find the latest copy of each chapter of my books that I worked on, save those to the appropriate “Writing” subfolder, then create one copy of my school files on my iMac, deleting all the other school files from my MacBook and the MobileMe cloud since I won’t need to use them again.
3. Do the same thing with my blogging files, but put them up on the cloud and delete them from both computers. (Is that really safe and the right thing to do?)
4. Figure out how to better organize my writing files now – especially the ones that have gone through various revisions (agent notes, critique group notes, grad school critique notes, etc). And then… ???

Umm… help?!  :)

If you know what to do because you’ve messed this up yourself, or because you’re an organizational genius, will you please come to my rescue? LOL! Anything you can put in the comments section would be useful to all of our other reader friends who might need similar help. But if you feel more comfortable emailing me, you can reach me at kittyrosebucholtz AT yahoo dot com.

Thank you in advance! It’ll be great to be able to check off one of my goals for the week as completed. But more than that, it’ll be such a relief to open and edit a file knowing it really is the most current version with all the other notes included! If I get enough comments and ideas, I’ll write another blog post putting all the ideas together. So if you want credit for your idea, please leave your name and web site address and I’ll link to you.  :)

I know I’m a bit ahead of the game on this, but we are starting school on Monday. This is our last weekend of summer vacation.

At the end of school a mere two months ago, I dropped all my teacher supplies into my drawer and file boxes and walked away, wiped my hands, and put on my writer’s hat. I am pleased to say I met all of my summer writing goals, but one little one that will take no time at all Saturday morning.

So, it’s time to reset the routine once again. Starting with getting organized.

With my kids’ help, I’ve been clearing out the clutter. Multiple trash bins have been filled as well as several recycle boxes, and lastly, I’ve got a well-stocked trunk ready for Goodwill.

Inspired by my school cleansing, I decided to tackle a few of my writer’s piles as well.

To simplify my piles (I am a piler, though I try to be a filer) I use this system:

1. Writer’s Notebook. I keep a Writer’s Notebook which is a really big binder. In here, I keep everything related to the business of writing. Craft, agent/editor query lists and responses, class notes, etc. Well, almost everything, my expenses are in another book right next to the computer where I tend to make my purchases.
2. WIP Folders. Each WIP gets it’s own pretty notebook, and matching accordion file (pictured above) for all the loose bits of things like notes, websites, critiques, research, etc. This works well for most of my WIPs, though I have one historical that has exceeded its space for all the research.
3. An Idea Box. It really is a box (pictued above) that I toss newspaper and magazine clippings into. A lot of my story ideas springboard off of books or articles I’ve read and I haven’t found a better way to organize these other than the big box.

And that’s pretty much it for the physical writing clutter. It all goes in one of three places. What is your system?