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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

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This post is inspired by Elise's post yesterday. On top of my bookshelf I have a stack of manuscript drafts. Sometimes it's the full draft, often just a chapter or partial.  What you can't see in this picture is one more draft that's in a black binder on the shelf.  It blended into the shadow. 


I know I'll recycle these at some point. I really do like trees and am not trying to kill them all off in one manuscript. but for some reason I just can't let them go yet.  To take them and drop them off at the recycling center would seem like abandonment.  Worse yet, it would seem like I had given up on the manuscript. Yea, I'm crazy, I know.  I have all those drafts on the computer.  Plus the finished project.  But I'm not ready to toss them.  There they'll stay until my beautiful book is published or shelved.  Then I'll be able to move on. 

What do you do with your printed drafts?
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24 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2012 at 3:09 PM

    LOL! I still have a printed manuscript of my second book, which I published in 2009. Just can't throw it away. I wish I still had the original manuscript for my first book too. :(

    ReplyDelete
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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 7:09 AM

      Our books are our babies, it's as hard to get rid of them as it is the baby clothes from our children.

      Delete
  2. CynthiaSeptember 5, 2012 at 3:19 PM

    I don't like clutter so I recycle all my old drafts. I keep the most recent draft on my memory drive.

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 7:10 AM

      I'm not a big fan of clutter either but some things I have to hold onto.

      Delete
  3. MorganSeptember 5, 2012 at 3:27 PM

    Ohhhh... I LOVE printed drafts... there's a real magic to words on real paper... I actually love it when agents request hard copies, LOL!

    And I let my kids color on the back of old manuscripts... ;)

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 7:13 AM

      There is something magic about reading on paper drafts. It makes it feel like a real book.

      Delete
  4. Elise FallsonSeptember 5, 2012 at 3:49 PM

    Hey, thanks for the link back! We do a lot of recycling, but I'll probably end up burning my old drafts. We live out in the country and have a burn pile.

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 7:14 AM

      Burning is its own form of recycling. We grew up with a burn pile. We're not allowed to do it anymore though.

      Delete
  5. Zan MarieSeptember 5, 2012 at 7:13 PM

    I can't edit well on the screen. Give me a print out everytime. Recycling will happen in it's season.

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 7:14 AM

      I do a mix of both, depending on what I'm doing.

      Delete
  6. StinaSeptember 5, 2012 at 10:16 PM

    *snort* so I'm not the only one who still has hard copies of her mss. I haven't done with my last few, but I do still have the early ones. I really do have to get rid of them some time.

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  7. Tess Julia September 6, 2012 at 9:09 AM

    Yes, all my printed copies of chapters, revisions, etc. are lurking in my house too!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 12:13 PM

      I like the idea of our old stories lurking about the house. Always with us.

      Delete
  8. Joylene Nowell ButlerSeptember 6, 2012 at 10:26 AM

    I'm smiling because I can so relate! I'm carrying around 5 mss in paper form. There's something "real" about paper. And I don't want to kill trees either, but we do have hectares of bug kill. Better to turn those into books than just burn them. Only problem is who knows who it is in control.

    Great post, Sara. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone.

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 12:15 PM

      We have a lot of paper companies around here and they do a lot of coming to people's houses and thinning out areas or cutting dying or diseased trees. They do try to use the trees that have to come down anyway. And I like to imagine that they plant trees where they've needed to clear cut, though I don't know if this is true.

      Delete
  9. Barbara WatsonSeptember 6, 2012 at 10:27 AM

    Love the photo! And how you save every part of your draft. I keep some of my printed drafts, especially the ones with all the scribbles, cross-outs, and arrows on them to remind myself how far my story has come. The early drafts I can easily recycle because they are so horrid. :-)

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 12:16 PM

      I didn't print any early drafts out. They were such a mess.

      Delete
  10. UnknownSeptember 6, 2012 at 3:02 PM

    That's quite a bit! I generally hang on to mine for a while. I've got some from at least six or seven years ago. The few that I have gotten rid of for whatever reasons have been (if within the last year and half or so) recycled. Anything before that I tossed in the trash.

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  11. S.P. BowersSeptember 6, 2012 at 4:04 PM

    I do have a few print outs from that long ago, but not whole novels, maybe just thirty pages.

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  12. Deniz BevanSeptember 6, 2012 at 8:29 PM

    I'm not the one to ask - I have to print it to do edits, and then I never throw anything paper-related away. So many drafts!

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 7, 2012 at 7:00 AM

      I imagine you sitting on a huge easy chair made of drafts of your book. :)

      Delete
  13. Jolene PerrySeptember 7, 2012 at 2:20 PM

    My printed drafts are on the bookshelf in binders. I love them even though they're all way outdated versions of the finished products

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    1. S.P. BowersSeptember 9, 2012 at 4:04 PM

      It's like your children's baby pictures. They may not look exactly like that right now but they did once and we loved them then too.

      Delete

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