One of my (unexpected) Christmas presents this year was a new computer. This has been a wonderful gift; my old computer left me wondering each time I used it if this was the last time before it died.
I’ve been sorting through all my documents saved up on the old computer, figuring out which ones I want to transfer over to the new one and which ones I can say goodbye to. It’s been an interesting experience, almost a timeline of me as a writer. Not just my skill level, but my style, my interests, the types of stories I write at different times in my life, the stories I started and never took anywhere … there’s a part of me that wants to save them all for posterity.
There’s the other part of me that remembers Emily Starr burning her outgrown stories and poems every time she sorted through her stack and heartily approves.
Right now I’m working on re-typing and editing my four short stories set in the Whitney & Davies world, which I will be releasing as a collection SOON (trying to help bridge the gap between Books 1 and 2, since it has been four years since I released Magic Most Deadly and at this point I’m concerned fans of the series have forgotten about it) and so have been able to put off the document-sorting for a little bit.
Soon enough, though, I’ll be diving in for real, figuring out which stories to metaphorically burn, which to save, and which, perhaps, should be set aside for the chance to grow them into something even more beautiful.
Aaack, don’t throw them out! Save at least one copy of them. If nothing else, to show your kids later, when they get down on themselves for not being “as good as you, Mom” – you have to be able to show them that you had to start somewhere, too. (Having said that, I need to go the other way – actually throw out early drafts etc. No point in hanging onto *everything*. Sigh – that’s a project still in front of me…) Enjoy your new compy!
Oh man, moment of truth! That’s a tough call.
I never throw anything out! I don’t know if I should because I read an article with Anne Rice talking about how she writes sentences on the wall of the bathroom while she’s “sitting there” just in case she forgets them. Lol. Her point is that you never know where the idea will come from, even looking back on “stuff” with fresh eyes. But I also have a computer full of “stuff” that I need to sort through and transfer to the new computer. It’s a job that I just thing “Gak”!!!