MESS IS IMPORTANT - On Writing

I've thought about this a lot --  how to start. I came across this on Bloom , website for writers, age 40 and over  - from the startling writer of short, flash fiction Meg Pokrass.  I don't think you have to be 40 plus for this advice to resonant: 
"I think you can start by looking at the mess in your room, in your kitchen, or in your life—and writing some words about it. See if the words are as messy as the mess. Those words are important. Mess is important.
Alternatively, look at the orderliness in your room, your kitchen, or your life. Write about the satisfaction or the tyranny in that order. Who does it remind you of? Who do you remind yourself of?

Write about the phone call or e-mail that doesn’t come, the one that you were waiting for your whole life. Write about the call that comes too often.

Write about the call that is strangely just right on time, what the ring sound is like, and what the room temperature is when the phone rings.

Write about what you love as much as what you dislike. Imagine people you despise when they were children, write about an imaginary moment that made them who they are. Lie and create. Deceive your way to the truth. Tell your own story, and then find characters living inside yourself."
Now I'm off to look at my mess -- I have so much more of that than orderliness.

Truly, Caroline
P.S. If you haven't read my debut novel: LIE, read it this summer. New novel, Before My Eyes, coming in February, 2014!