Photo by Jess Zoerb on Unsplash
It’s April and time for Spring cleaning. Airing out the house. Getting rid of the accumulations of the winter (or rainy) season. Thinking of summer plans.
A Quick Scan of My Writing House
My writing house is full of draft novels. I have random research printed materials and a jumble of notebooks, stocks of pens and forgotten folders. My writing summers are usually preparing for National Novel Writing Month (now defunct, but I still use November for a binge writing session.)
Spring Cleaning Discoveries
This year I’m going to finish an old novel. During the early days of NaNoWriMo, the program “rules” demanded starting a new, fresh work. The image of an albatross around your neck matched the feeling of an unfinished manuscript, too smelly to allow you to think or create. Or perhaps a ball and chain at your ankle, slowing your progress.
But in doing Spring cleaning, I looked at a list of first draft manuscript I have written over the past two decades. I have 18. Each needs editing. My examination revealed a bigger mess than I realized. Some need finishing! That’s because, despite the goal of NaNoWriMo to write a complete story arc in 30 days, I didn’t always meet that goal. So I have decided in my April Spring cleaning of my novel manuscripts, to clean up the mess just a little and at least complete one of these unfinished novels.
New Plans
My summer writing plans will now include reading the first draft of the novel I’ll be working to finish. Imagining some future scenes. Doing any needed research. And most importantly, getting excited about writing and completing the novel in November.
This delays my dive into editing. No need to work on editing one of the completed drafts if I am still writing the ending of another. I dread the thought of editing. I will get to it eventually. I must. But I have now set the goal of having each and every manuscript novel at least completed to a final “the end.” The mess will be a little less messy, a little more tidy. I will be better able to assess the manuscripts. I will be able to sort them—by type, by date, by any other category I deem necessary to consider (like whether it is ultimately publishable or not).
Call to Action
May I suggest that you undertake a writer’s Spring cleaning. What does your catalogue of writing projects look like? What can you do to help organize your written works? Your writing space? Your future plans? Add a Writer’s Spring Cleaning to your April agenda!