SAVE, TOSS, OR DONATE YOUR WRITING?
WriteDay Writing Tip Wednesday
16 October 2024
WRITEDAY WRITING TIPS WEDNESDAY
“Save, Toss, or Donate Your Writing?”
You may or may not be at this point in your writing, but it’s a topic to consider several times during your career no matter how short or long. What to do with your body of published works (including the rough drafts)?
When I began my writing career, the internet, computers (some), and email did not exist. Part of the mystique of being a writer was the physical-ness of researching actual books in the library, writing the rough draft by hand, then typing it out on a manual typewriter. When electric typewriters came along, I thought I was in heaven. After tons of revisions by hand and a red pencil, I typed a cover letter, slid the sheets of paper into a 9x12 inch manila envelope, and drove to the post office. A few days later, I either got a phone call from the editor or a letter in the regular mail asking for changes, clarifications, or my favorite response, “This is perfect! The check will be in the mail once we go to print.” Or I got rejections, lots of them, many of which I have saved as a testament to my persistence.
I collected many of these paper letters and rough drafts. So many in fact that a forty-year (and counting) tenure resulted in several boxes, scrapbooks, and binders that one morning my husband literally tripped and fell over. It was then I decided to find a home for the materials. It took three months of steady researching and contacting special collection libraries all over the country to discover that my home state archives library would be thrilled to accept, house, and make available my body of work as a freelance writer.
This happened near the end of the pandemic, but me and the librarian persevered until the day arrived that my daughter and I drove the car loaded with boxes to Charleston, West Virginia where I handed over all the magazines, newspapers, awards, books, rough drafts, and more that represented my heart and mind’s attempt to connect, communicate, and educate others. It was bittersweet to willingly surrender all those boxes but it felt cleansing and cathartic.
My first journalism teacher in the ninth grade taught me how to create a portfolio to document my writing. It was how she graded us but also how we learned to observe ourselves learning and growing as writers. At the end of the school year, every student in journalism class was given a table in the school cafeteria to spread out our “clips” of the pieces we wrote and published. Then we were tasked with writing a personal reflection essay about our development as newspaper writers. This post is the same sort of thing. Ever since that assignment, portfolio/reflection essays have been my go-to assessment of my work. As a homeschooling family, I taught my daughters the process which led them to be more cognizant of how much they’ve grown and what they still want to achieve.
Here is a link to my collection housed in the West Virginia State Archives Library. I have since started to collect more items to donate at a later date because I haven’t stopped writing and publishing yet.
https://archive.wvculture.org/history/collections/manuscripts/ms2023-022.html
I highly recommend doing this with your work because it provides an opportunity to look back and appreciate how far you’ve come as a writer and make plans for your future. It also contributes worthy material for future researchers. Yes, this represents paper usage. Yes, digital is worthwhile. Yes, either is acceptable.
Have you ever donated your writing to a library or archive other than the normal storage by the publications themselves? Do you have any ideas or thoughts about this concept? Would you consider doing this with your work?
Be well, write well!
~Joy
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JOY E. HELD is an author, educator, editor, entrepreneur, and literary citizen responsible for this site and its contents. She is the author of
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She writes spicy historical fiction under a pen name.
She is the winner of multiple writing and book awards:
West Virginia Writers, Inc. Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention, Novel, 1998.
New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention, Writer Wellness, 2020.
Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, Writer Wellness, 2021.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, Member of the Year, 2020.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, First Book Award, 2020.
She is an adjunct faculty member in the Southern New Hampshire University Online MFA Creative Writing.
She is a proud graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.
She is a member of The Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Joy is the founder and CEO of My WRITEDAY Subscription Box for writers and readers.
I really appreciated this piece, Joy. I've been writing and publishing for over 40 years, both periodicals and books (traditionally published and self-published as it became available). It slightly coincides with my thinking about how letter-writing is a diminishing if not a moribund skill/art, and how much so many researchers have depended on letters to offer all kinds of insights and understanding to lives now gone. (I wrote A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story with enormous help from Belknap Press's collected Adams papers. I wonder what the next generations will use (in addition to YOUR archive!) I also love the bit in your piece about your 9th grade journalism teacher. She must have been a gem! All the best,
Nancy Taylor Robson
Thanks, Joy. I've got loose-leaf binders of the work I've had copies of, and my books (both the ones traditionally published and those I've self-published) are on our office/library shelves. I'll give it a little thought.