I generally keep my old stories and poems, but I wrote a novel by hand back when I was a teenager that's somehow gone missing over the years. I wish I still had that one. All my poems are kept in a box that I haven't opened in a long time, but I like knowing they're still there.
Now that everything's written on my laptop, I keep it all. Whether it's a story idea, a half-finished story, or a first draft that's been sitting there for years, I always come back to them at some point.
I throw nothing away!! The story in my forum sig won third place in the last comp... I'd stopped working on it a long time ago after a friend told me it was crap... (Come to think of it, they said quite a lot of my work was rubbish and that I wasn't a very good writer)
Even then, I still liked it, but thought they might be right... Eventually, I picked it back up and decided it could be a decent story...
I've often reworked old stuff... You can generally do something with it...
Getting rid of old writing is like cutting off your own leg. Silly to do, and leaves no support for future adventures into the world of prose.
Purveyor of Poetry & Porn
I would never really throw anything away I wrote, or purposely delete it...I've lost some stuff I hadn't finished, first time when my netbook got stolen in Sept. 2010...and again when my system crashed right around New Year...but nothing really major...
I've only really been writing in earnest since 2009, so everything is sort of posted on the internet somewhere, for better or worse I might add...
I did write two poems in high school, and a girl I went to school with reminded me about them a couple of years back...I have a feeling they're still in a drawer somewhere...
I did write out a couple of song ideas on paper in the 90's before I got a computer, which means they had to be before '96...a couple of them seem to work more as poems, and I posted one here "I Wish I Knew" is actually the oldest thing I have posted on Lush...early/mid 90's...
I keep it all. Sometimes looking back on it can give you an idea for a new story, or you can edit the half finished piece of crap and polish it up. Even sometimes just looking at something you can bring back feelings that you want to remember, so I keep everything. You never know when you're gonna wanna recycle something. Oh and btw, I have backups of backups everywhere. If it's electronic, chances are I'll have a story saved on it, in some form or another.
I ought to, I have a huge number of incomplete stories which I never get round to finishing and then when I re write a story and think its really good and submit it some superscillious c*** tells me it doesn't comply with guidelines, this without actually reading it.
Then they happily publish the mosst turgid boring lum of crap i have ever written "Ravishing Miss Price," but wontb touch "Hanging Pedophiles from a Lamp Post by their Bollocks," which is the best work I ever did, see it on Stories XNXX as I have had enough of Lush
You would not believe the number of one's I have deep six
My computer has a 4TB and a 3TB external hard drive. I have 2TB on the CPU itself. I also have a 500GB "temporary" external hard drive. I don't throw anything away! LOL!
There is absolutely no way I could keep everything I write. I probably lose more than I keep. I run across notes stashed in books and unfinished poems all the time. I wear computers out and leave things on them. Storage devices are everywhere. I can't remember where I stored certain things, I trash notebooks in hopes that no one under the sun should ever get a hold of it after I die. I have my academic articles and tons of notes for those. Notes for lectures that spin me into writing frenzies. Poetry, fiction and just stuff I have to write down before I shoot somebody. I've thrown things away only to dig in the garbage for it the next day. I'll remember writing something and can't for the life of me find where I put it at--and it was good too. I'll find diamonds in old journals and flash drives in the bottom of purses. I'm basically a neat person. That helps in my battle to let things go. In the past, I've moved around quite frequently. Getting rid of things becomes a necessity in that case. Sometimes I long for things that I have written that have long since been thrown out. It's a two edged sword.
when I was young, I used to write short stories in a diary. But, one day my mom read them, used a red pen and marked out all the grammatical errors. I guess she was just being a parent and playing her role. I was so mad that I ended up burning that diary. I think I'll always regret doing that. So after that, I kinda stopped writing for myself till I turned 19. But of course what one writes at 19 is not the same as what one can write at 10 but still...
Now I try to keep most of the things I write, whether its on my pendrive or a my notebooks. I am proud of what I've written so far; whether its thoughts, stories.. even ranting off and I'd like to keep it with me forever.. like a valuable treasure. and it probably is.
I try scanning the files into the computer, because paper can eventually take up a lot of room. Just make sure you put in Dropbox, Google Drive, and on a flashdrive to protect it from being destroyed forever.
I do most of my writing as journaling. To me journals serve a purpose and when that purpose is over I have no regrets about recycling them. So...I've tossed maybe thousands of pages over the years.
For years I would write poetry and then just toss it out once I'd shared it with the person it was meant for. More often, it would simply be formed in my mind and recited at the moment. At the time, I never even considered keeping it. I lost dozens, maybe hundreds of works over the years. Now, with the advantage of smart phones and tablets, I record every verse as soon as it comes. Most of it will never be shared, but sometimes something is good enough that its worth posting.
Never get rid of anything I have penned. I write history besides poems and in the case of one introduction I wrote, it took me so many re-writes over more than half a lifetime that I have an orange-crate full of various version of a 26 page introduction. Poetry is not "mine"
technically but I am the medium for a muse a woman incites. Sorry if only some of you have heard of such a thing.
I've never got rid of actual writing but I have a habit of ripping pictures and stuff out of magazines which I think will help me 'see' characters and places. Those do get binned occasionally. Reading Lisa's post reminded me that I have misplaced an early poem that won an award at school. I should have another rummage around for that.
I have before, when I was younger. Now I try to keep everything, no matter how silly I think it is. But...I still lost everything when my computer died on me suddenly. I lost a decades worth of notes, character profiles, outlines and research. It still hurts...
When I first started writing I wasn't careful and I lost some work that I would now very much like to have. Now I keep multiple copies of everything I write.
Some of my writing wasn't worthy of ashes in the wind. I have recently started a file for dust mites to read while wiling away in my shop, hoping them to quit fucking with my allergies...the dear wee creatures
Most of mine isn't written down. I would think of a line or two and keep saving the drafts.
And...repeat.
Probably not recommended.
I so agree. I have bookshelves of literature but most of them are now on my iPad or kindle. However, throwing my books away is like cheating on your lover. I can't bring myself to do it. Just dumping the encyclopedia alone would clear a book case.
I throw nothing away when it concerns writing: from notes, characters, or research.
