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This is the blog of children's book author and elementary school teacher, Stacy Barnett Mozer. I blog about my own writing journey, the journey of other kidlit authors, my classroom, and talk about books. Thanks for stopping by. Your thoughts are always welcome (and encouraged).

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Spring Cleaning

It's Spring, which means it's time for Spring cleaning. While I'm cleaning out the closets and shelves for the things I don't use anymore, I've decided it may also be time to clean the messiest area in my world - my document folders.

I'll admit it - when it comes to drafts I am a hoarder. I'm pretty sure I still have every version of every story I've ever written. Each time I think of deleting a document or throwing out a hard copy I hesitate. What if I need an idea from it later on? 

I'm getting to a point where the drafts have become meaningless. I have so many versions I wouldn't even know where to look for an old idea. 

Hmm. Maybe I don't need to delete them, I just need a better filing system!

What do you think? Should I continue hoarding or press delete? What do you do?

4 comments:

  1. I think one of the most wonderful things about digital information storage in this day and age is that we can hoard without looking like crazy people! I say save it all, but make sure it's well-labeled. I've come across some things that I've written that I don't remember having written and I'm like, "hey, this isn't half bad!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thnk you are right, Linda. Now I just have to figure out some sort of labeling system. Right now I have everything by date, which is good for knowing which is the newest version, but not helpful later on. I wonder if there is a filing program that would let me write a blurb about esch one? Maybe in Scrivner? Hmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you should keep them, especialy if they are different drafts of a final work. They might make for great extras down the line should the book be digitally published. You know, alternate scenes, beginnings, endings and such.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I say keep them, but separate past versions from your most recent one. You never know, an editor could say they want more of X or Y and those were things you trimmed or cut during revision. At least you'd have something to go back to then.

    ReplyDelete

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