Taking Stock of your writing

If you piled all your writings together in one place how much room would you need? A shelf, a closet, or an entire attic? Think about all your journals filled with your poetry or musings, all your novel manuscripts, and maybe even published books. How much space do they take? It may be an eye-opening experience to give this taking stock exercise a try.

I had the opportunity to do this taking stock (by accident) when we moved to a larger home.  I only meant to shelve things so my office wouldn’t be cluttered, but by sorting all my writings into a huge closet in my office, I learned a few things.

1.  I had written a lot of words.

There was a lot of work stuffed in that closet and I felt a sense of pride that I was doing what writers are supposed to do.  I was producing words, thoughts, and stories.  I had proof I was writing.

2.  I submitted a very small percentage of the words I wrote.

I was stunned that I hardly ever submitted most of the work filling that closet.  That is a weakness that I need to fix.  Writers write, but they also submit.  I vow to get more of my work out into the world.

3.  I write in many different forms.

For someone who thought of herself as a romance novelist, it surprised me that I had completed more screenplays than novel manuscripts.  Nowadays I’m writing a lot of poetry, too.

4.  I need to purge some of this.

The biggest discovery from this exercise was the amount of paper—old drafts, manuscripts I’ll never submit, and other stuff that I don’t need anymore—still taking up my space.  The journals I plan to keep forever, I find good material in them.  But stories that I have no intention of revising… those should go, right?  How much of my previous writing do I really need to hang onto?  It’s hard to let this proof of my writerliness go.  Do you have the same difficulty?  How do you manage the paper?  Let us know in the comments.  Any advice will be appreciated  🙂