The Furious Spinner

I'm trying to get rid of the clutter in my life. You should see the house: looks like we've had a disaster. Does that happen to you when you do a big cleaning? I have way, way, way too much paper. Since I wrote most of my novels on yellow pads, I have all those pads. Plus I have the printed drafts of all of my novels. Do I save them? Do I dump them? Do I keep just one copy? Do I keep the yellow pads? It's too much stuff. I figured someone would want my papers some day, but that day hasn't come. So now what do I do? Isn't it great I have too much stuff: that's the kind of dilemma to have. Tomorrow morning I just may get up and throw it all away. Wouldn't that be liberating? Every time I've sold some of my book—which we used to do all the time—I've always been sorry. Always a week or a month later, I'll need one of the books I sold. If I throw away something I've written it's gone.

So what do you think? Is there any reason to keep first drafts of novels? What do other writers do?

It's still raining.

I'm off to bed. 2 comments

2 Comments:

Is there any reason to keep first drafts of novels -

Well, paranoid, obsessive concern that Something Important Might Be Lost If I Throw It Away is one. I can't say if it's a good reason or not. :)

Seriously, I think the reason to hang onto a rough draft at least long enough to go through it with a fine-tooth comb is this:

if there is anything at all in there that did NOT make it into the published version for reasons other than sucking - a scene that was good but didn't, in the end, serve the story, an interesting character that didn't fit, that sort of thing - we might save that section so we can use it somewhere else.

Some nice babies get thrown out with the bathwater when they could do very well in other families.

I know people who don't throw anything they write away, ever. But mostly they save it in their computers. Otherwise, we end up living like the compulsive hoarder people who can't walk from their living room to their kitchen for the piles of paper.

On the other hand, I've been known to ignore things in both paper and computer form, which is why I'm a fan of intentionally scanning old work for missed gems I might use in new ways, then pitching the rest. Or at least saving it in a computer file marked 'old stuff I might go back to at some point.'

For what it's worth!

By  Theriomorph, at 6:23 AM  

Thanks! I used to go through my work and throw out stuff once a year. Felt really good. I haven't done that in a few years, so now I feel free, free, free. And I'm reading for more writing!

By  Kim Antieau, at 8:43 PM  

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