Board Games

The nice folks over at readingwriters.com recently asked me an interesting question for their online newsletter: What's on your desk? And seeing as part of the answer recently came up in the blog, I thought I'd share my thoughts here.

Plus, it'll give me yet another excuse not to write a real blog entry this week. Clever, eh?

So, without further adieu...and by "adieu," of course, I mean self-justifying hooey....

"What's on your desk?" is a good question to ask a writer. But I've got a better one, if said writer is me: "What isn't on your desk?" The answer being, "An Edgar Award -- dammit! -- and not much else."

A desk is for writing, yes. Researching, brainstorming, outlining, yeah yeah yeah. But my desk also happens to be where I do most of my accumulating. And I'm not talking about wealth and power.

(I'm a writer, remember? We're in it for love, not money, right?)

(Although, then again, we wouldn't actually say no to more cash, would we...?)

Alas, it's not checks that are piling up on my desk -- unless you count the ones waiting to go in the mail to Visa and the phone company and the IRS and on and on and on. And piling up beside all that are books, contracts, royalty statements, fan letters (well, O.K. -- there's one), pens, pencils, notebooks, CDs, DVDs, stuffed animals (I try to keep my kids away from the computer, but it just can't be done) and a depressingly long To Do list from which nothing ever seems to Get Done.

In fact, if you were to visit my home office, you might not believe I have a desk at all. You'd just walk into the bedroom that's been designated Daddy's Place and assume you'd stumbled into one of those old houses where 90-year-old twin sisters with a hundred cats stockpile every issue of The Cleveland Plain Dealer dating back to 1949. Then you'd run out screaming before the stack of Life magazines -- or, in my case, the complete Time Life "Old West" collection -- can fall over and crush you.

Which isn't to say my desk isn't organized. It's just organized in piles, heaps and mounds. (I like the heaps best because you don't have to lift anything to search through them. You just stick a hand in and start sifting.)

But though I'm a slob, I do have my anal side. It's just not things I care about organizing. It's my work. And here's how I do it.

Some writers motivate themselves with dreams of success. Some do it with the simple joy of creation. Me, I'm a guilt and fear man. Hence, the Big Board and the Calendar.

The Big Board is...well, a big board. A big dry-erase board, to be a bit more precise. On it is a grid tracking word count and chapters completed week by week leading up to the deadline for my next book. Its purpose: allowing me to size up, at a glance, whether or not I'm on schedule.

And then have a nervous breakdown when I see I'm not.

And then whip myself into a writing frenzy to get back on track.

And then have another nervous breakdown when I see I'm still behind.

Masochistic? You bet! But it works.

The Calendar is...well, a calendar. (Do you sense a theme developing with the names I give to things?) It hangs next to my desk, and I turn to it at the end of every work day and write down the number of words I’ve managed to produce.

Why? Because sometimes the Big Board doesn't make me feel badly enough.

"Just 842 words today? But last Wednesday I wrote 849 words! I'm slipping! I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night watching Doctor Who. I'm such a loser! Or maybe I'm developing Alzheimer's...."

Obviously, I need panic the way other writers need coffee, and if I don't get it I have to create it.

Oh, and I need coffee, too. Pot after pot of it. That's why so many of my piles, heaps and mounds are stained brown.

In conclusion, I see by the Calendar that I only added 833 words to my new novel today, and the Big Board tells me I'm two weeks behind schedule, so what the heck am I doing working on something else? ARGH!!!

Now where was that cup of coffee? I know it's on this desk somewhere....

Steve Hockensmith
April 13, 2008

Comments

[Rebecca]

Your work is awesome and your blog is incredible! We have been researching photographers as a project and you are the number one pick.

[J.T.]

Well there you go.
You're the number one pick.

[Steve]

Actually, I'm the #2 pick. Or the #1,001 pick. The real #1 pick is the *other* Steve Hockensmith: John Stephen Hockensmith, renowned Kentucky photographer (and no doubt relation of mine, somehow or other -- I don't know for sure, as I've never met the guy).

Sorry, Rebecca -- you've got the wrong guy!

Though I do take cute pictures of my kids, if I do say so myself.

-Steve