Spring Cleaning for Writers
Where Fleur dusts off old stuff and finds USB drives.
It’s April, which for me means that I am starting to feel the itch of spring cleaning. It’s amazing how dirty and messy winter is… On the writer side of my house, this means some office spring cleaning. There are papers, sticky notes with stuff on it that I don’t even remember thinking, mail, and reference books that belong on a shelf. Time to clean up.
That brings me to this question: when was the last time I backed up my files (I can’t remember, which means it’s been too long)…? I once lost an entire week’s worth of work because my computer crashed, so I should really know better. I think it’s in a cloud somewhere, but I prefer the ol’ USB drive. Just in case…
This is the current state of my desk, an organized kind of chaos…
Aside from spring cleaning, I also like to take stock of where I am from a productivity standpoint about once a quarter. Here’s my done list:
Rough draft of WW II novel – 35K words
Rough draft of novel plotting book – 10K words
Various marketing activities (I need to track this a little more)
Rough draft of requested short story for anthology.
Not bad for the first three months of the year, though I do feel like I could track my progress a little better, also for motivational purposes.
Tell me, creative friends: how do you track your work?
Stories in the Attic
One thing that’s rewarding this spring is making a list of short stories, articles, books proposals, and other writing that I tossed into the virtual attic. There’s A LOT OF IT… This coming week, I want to take a look at all of it to see what might be usable, editable, and what should stay in the attic.
What I’m Writing
I took a well-deserved break, but now I feel a few short story ideas calling my name… I am also planning for the next quarter, which will probably be mostly revision.
My YA mystery is out on submission to editors, so send some good thoughts. It’s a tough publishing world for young manuscripts… Sending a manuscript out is like sending a kid off to college: you just hope the world is kind.
Where I’m Going
April holds two big events for me: Texas Library Association conference and Pikes Peak Writers Conference.
Tell me if you’re going, so I can say howdy! A friendly face is a nice thing at these big conferences…
Your Weekly Floof
The weather has been mild, so I try to open the window for Floof as much as I can. She loves watching the deer and the neighbors…
