Why I’ve tided up my office
I’ve taken a week off from my day-job and used quite a bit
of it to give my study a thorough sort-out. I’m probably going to be moving into a shared office at work shortly. There’ll be less space for books so I’m
making space here so that I can bring back all of my books form the office.
I find quite often that anyway if I’m in the office the
books I want are at home and if I’m at home the books I want are in the office.
So this is a good strategy anyway. Besides, we’re going to have more contact
hours with students so that the office becomes a space that we use for small
snatches of time between lectures. We’ll all be located quite closely together
so some of that spare time will be used for meetings, both formal and informal.
There’ll only be time and brain space for quick bursts of admin work. The
studious desk-work will be completed in my study at home.
Why this was such a big job this time
When we moved her just under five years ago we left a house
we’d lived in for twenty-six years. Everything got a thorough sort-out and the
new house started nice and neat and tidy. Not so my study, however. I was
living in two locations with a 239 mile commute twice a week. I was using
everything and also having to move from two homes into one. Everything found
shelf-space. It never felt very satisfying though, apart from the desk and
workstation itself.
What I’ve done
I’ve cleared eight bookshelves. I’ve room for one more
bookcase should I need it. I’ve filled one green bin with paper for recycling
and have as much again to go in once the paper bin is emptied next week. I’ve
archived some records I really need to keep. I’ve found one more shelf for one
of the bookcases.
The same amount of paper is unlikely to accumulate again –
most things come electronically these days – bank accounts, utility bills,
publishing contracts and even rejections slips.
What I’ve let go of
I’ve kept all of my publishing contracts but I’ve ditched
the rejection slips. I even found some for a book that was rejected twenty-five
times and has since been published, gone out of print, edited and republished
as an e-book. There were some “good” rejections but in many cases I’ve moved
beyond those.
I’ve also let go of some good feed-back from the various
competitions, especially those of the Winchester Annual Writers’
Conference. I frequently came second or
highly commended – in fact that happened in every competition I entered – but I
never came first. The feedback was really useful at the time but I would give
myself harsher criticism now. I’ve moved on as a writer.
I’d kept some hard-copies of good reviews. I’d rather have
good reviews or links to them on my website these days. I’ve kept a couple to
transfer and then even that paper will be dumped.
I kept some old handwritten beginnings of stories and
articles. I was such an amateur back then. Even where the idea is basically
good and I might want to develop it at some time I’m better off starting from
scratch. Besides, I can’t read my writing anyway.
I found some notes from workshops I’d given. Well, I’ve
still got electronic copies of all of those and anyway I tend to adjust
slightly for each class. I move on as a teacher, too. Plus the paper has
actually become old.
Moving on
So, I’ve moved on to a study that’s a good deal pleasanter
and will be easier to control if I now do a “spring-clean” once a year.
I’ve certainly moved on enough as a writer that I can feel
safe discarding evidence of earlier work though one or two touches remain to
remind me of who I am.
I’m also moving on to becoming an academic who does much of
her research away from the physical form of the university. That seems
absolutely right and anyway is good preparation for retirement - something that
will happen within the next three years.
Getting there
Am I getting there? I think so. I had two pieces of news
this week that seemed to confirm that. The early work mentioned above seems very
naïve now though was taken seriously at the time.
I’m keeping the focus simple form now on. I want to write
something like David Almond’s Skellig or
Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. These
are books that say a lot and that I could read more than once though I have a
couple of shelves of books waiting to be read.
Money isn’t the issue though it would be good to have enough
money so that one doesn’t have to worry about it any more.
Yes, getting there but still some way to go.
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