Chaos Writers vs. Structure Writers: Which are you?

I wanted to tell you guys about a conversation I had with my roommate last night. And let me just say, I love being able to have these kind of literary analytical discussions with my friends. Anyway, since both of us are in the recent graduate trying to decide what to do with life phase, we've been talking a lot about what options we have and which ones are best and that kind of thing a lot, especially lately. We were both English majors and both have novels in the works, and a lot of our conversation revolves around how to make our lives conducive to writing careers, among other things.

This is what we discovered last night. For her, when life is structured and relatively calm, the writing suffers. She feels dry. When life is exciting and a bit chaotic, it fuels her creatively and the writing somehow happens on top of everything. She even said that writing is her way of making sense of, and even putting structure on, all the chaos.

This is totally foreign to me. I crave stability and structure. Heavens I need stability. And actually, this is a relatively new realization for me. But really, when I can plan (back to planning. Of course) for writing time, marketing time, all that, and when I don't have a million little worries and stresses and undecideds crowding my mind, and can just WRITE, things work out so much more easily for me. I love being able to start from a solid, stable, structural base, and then building and adding more things from there, perhaps even some adventure.

Of course, the key here is to make the writing happen whether or not life is boring or chaotic. But knowing which end of the spectrum you fall on may help you make some life decisions. It can maybe tell you why the writing hasn't been going well for a while and what you could do about it. I know thinking of things this way has helped me understand that for me personally its best to find me a stable, structured place, work from there, and not necessarily feel bad or lame for not doing something totally crazy. Maybe later, when my feet are planted on solid ground. But solid ground first, at least for me.

What do you think? Is this a fairly accurate dichotomy, and can it help? Which type are you, chaos or structure, and why do you think that is?


Sarah