New/Old Discoveries
May 26, 2022
It wasn't quite the age of steam when I started writing, but it's long enough ago for me to have used a typewriter to produce my manuscripts, including carbon copies! (Even writing that makes me feel ancient.) In some ways, computers have made life far easier: mistakes can be corrected without making a mess; you can produce a copy at a click, and can easily accommodate different formatting requirements. In addition, you save on postage and stationery. Another advantage is how much cupboard space you gain.
Being a belt and braces kind of person, I still make paper copies of my work in addition to backing up everything on memory sticks, but with so few publications now insisting on postal submissions, copies can be single-spaced and double-sided. However, I tend to change work every time I send it out, and until recently, I've been neglecting to update the hard copies too. It being Spring, I thought I should rectify that. While I was at it, I went through the cupboard where all the manuscripts are kept to root out any that had been changed or were duplicated.
I now have enough rough paper to insulate the loft. I also have a stack of extra sorting to do, because in the back of the cupboard I discovered around a dozen plays that I'd forgotten about–they aren't even on the computer. My suspicion is that I'd forgotten about them for good reason.
One, a television script, was ghost-written for someone I've lost touch with, so that one went straight in the bin (metaphorically–I hate wasting paper). A couple of others were definitely beyond their sell-by date, the world today having made them irrelevant. The others, I've yet to look through. They include TV, radio and stage scripts, and encompass historical, science fiction and 'contemporary' subjects. I have a feeling that the standard of writing will be cringeworthy, but there might be something worth saving–maybe a character, plot strand or even the occasional clever line.
I'm ever hopeful, but I was no prodigy. At least, I won't have the disappointment of peaking with my first work and sliding downhill ever after. No, my best is yet to come!
Being a belt and braces kind of person, I still make paper copies of my work in addition to backing up everything on memory sticks, but with so few publications now insisting on postal submissions, copies can be single-spaced and double-sided. However, I tend to change work every time I send it out, and until recently, I've been neglecting to update the hard copies too. It being Spring, I thought I should rectify that. While I was at it, I went through the cupboard where all the manuscripts are kept to root out any that had been changed or were duplicated.
I now have enough rough paper to insulate the loft. I also have a stack of extra sorting to do, because in the back of the cupboard I discovered around a dozen plays that I'd forgotten about–they aren't even on the computer. My suspicion is that I'd forgotten about them for good reason.
One, a television script, was ghost-written for someone I've lost touch with, so that one went straight in the bin (metaphorically–I hate wasting paper). A couple of others were definitely beyond their sell-by date, the world today having made them irrelevant. The others, I've yet to look through. They include TV, radio and stage scripts, and encompass historical, science fiction and 'contemporary' subjects. I have a feeling that the standard of writing will be cringeworthy, but there might be something worth saving–maybe a character, plot strand or even the occasional clever line.
I'm ever hopeful, but I was no prodigy. At least, I won't have the disappointment of peaking with my first work and sliding downhill ever after. No, my best is yet to come!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley.
