I’ve been cleaning out the basement today. Partly because it needs it, and partly because the basement is cooler than the rest of the house. But I was cleaning out the basement, and I found notebooks. No surprise, there.
Most of the notebooks haven’t been touched in years. Most of them are not connected to the project I’m working on now, or even the current revisions of the project I’m revising. I threw out a lot of the note cards without much thought, because I know where my current note cards are, and these ain’t them.
Throwing out a notebook is harder. If you’re like me, it’s not an organized thing. Notes from whatever I was doing at that moment, and some stories, and usually some doodles.
The organization thing is part of why I stopped writing long hand. Too much stuff, and it never seems to get into the computer.
And there were a lot of these note books.
Some of what was in them was pretty good.
A little more fan-fic than I’d like to admit to, but it’s not too bad. I’m frankly a little annoyed with myself for spending that much time on something that’s got real potential–if it weren’t fan-fic. Or maybe–facepalm–shocked that it is good. I was clearly aiming to entertain myself at the time. I’m not going to revise it. Although, I think I could. There’s not much of the original world or characters left. A quick name change–
There are bits and pieces of a lot of things.
I don’t know if it wouldn’t be better to just chuck it all unread and move on. Probably. Clear out the space and make a clean break. But I might not have the discipline to do it. And I might not want to.