[writing] Coming to Order

Okay, see that shelf? That's all sort-of-sorted, sort-of-not-sorted paperwork that used to be in one of the two wooden crates I bought from IKEA about five years ago. It hasn't been sorted since I was briefly unemployed in January 2006, when I was waiting to get hired by someone. Before that? It was in various notebooks and milk crates. About ninety percent of it is writing-related stuff, mainly outtakes and notes for things finished and unfinished.

See the top of the notebooks on the shelf below? Those are printed copies of various novels and projects I'd worked on over the years. Most are complete, but they're older versions and not up to date. That's slightly in better order than the above shelf, but it could be better. These are in pressboard covers, which, while they might conserve space and look nice, they really get frayed and unbound rather easily. I should note that there are a few file boxes in front of that (underneath that PM Press catalog) that's full of bits and bobs that may or may not be writing, but are too small to be piled onto that shelf.

And thirdly, the wire mesh bin on the right? That's full of random data cds--various versions of my writing from about 1996 until about 2005ish (I started saving the info to externals at that point, and later to Dropbox.)

My plan is to get these things in some semblance of order--both shelves and the bin and boxes. What I'd really like to do is scan a lot of those papers, but at present I only have one of those cheapo scanners that takes a good minute or so just to scan one page. I'm thinking something like this (which I just ordered for this very reason) would work wonders and save time. It's a bit expensive, but it's exactly what I'm looking for.

Digitally, I believe I already have everything that's on those discs (as well as on a handful of floppies I have), it's just a matter of getting them organized. The downside is having to root through most of it, considering that I'm sure I have multiple copies of the same documents and pictures on there.


I bring all this up because I like order. I'm not OCD about it, it's more that I know where it is, it's just I need better and quicker access to it. There's also the fact that, after a few fire scares at our last apartment complex, I think it's high time that I digitized everything, from artwork to writing, just so I have a more permanent copy. I highly doubt we'll have any fire issues here (not unless the girls downstairs do something really stupid), but there's always the rare chance our city has a repeat of the Loma Prieta '89 quake and we need to evacuate.

It's all part of my spring cleaning and life cleaning going on this year...I'm aiming to make a lot of big changes this year to make my writing career even more mobile and accessible. I plan to carve out some time where I can work on this outside of the daily writing I'm doing.

Hopefully by the time I'm done, I'll have something like my music--everything on an external for easiy mobility and security.