I’m devoting this week to filing/shredding/organization of writing/household and business files. My filing cabinets are bursting, and I don’t have room for more. We have a huge crawl space that needs a total clean-out. I know there are boxes of files hidden deep within that I could shred if I could find them. Including boxes of every draft I’ve ever written of HEAD OVER HEELS and BORROWING ALEX. At one time, it felt essential to keep them. Now, not so much. Do I really want my children or my children’s children going through all those old contest entries and critique comments someday? The rejection letters and letters announcing contest wins and sales, I’ll keep. But everything else is slowly and methodically getting shredded.
My old M.O. was to keep all documentation associated with a manuscript until I sold it. That’s still my basic M.O., but I’ve encountered a manu or two that are exceptions to this rule. I’ve revised the manuscripts in question way beyond their original versions, and I don’t see the point in keeping all that paper around.
WHERE SHE BELONGS, as I’ve said before, is a book of my heart. It was actually the third novel I wrote, and I put it away for years and years and years, then took it out and reworked it. I have a ton (nearly literally) of paperwork to prove it. Shredding most of this paperwork is like a celebration—because the book will finally see the light of day next year. That’s a wonderful feeling.
I hope to share that feeling two or three more times in 2011. I have a manuscript on submission, one in editing mode (for Penny), another queued for revisions, and one short (for Penny) also on submission. I devoted most of 2010 to one particular manuscript (well, and to WHERE SHE BELONGS, when I learned an editor was interested). I plan to devote 2011 to working on and submitting at least 3 manuscripts. So she says bravely. I haven’t yet written up my 2011 goals list, but unless editor or agent interest comes in on the manuscript currently on submission and my plans change because of that, 2011 promises to be a year of completing and submitting several projects that, for some reason or another, have “rested” on the backburner. Now it’s their turns.
How’s your end-of-year winding up?