Mining Your Files

What treasure may be lurking in your writing files?

After spending a year sidelined by several debilitating conditions, I was happy to find that at the beginning of 2012 my health returned.

I’m writing again and happy as a child who has just mastered cartwheels. Yippee!

While I was ill, no ideas penetrated my sleep-deprived mind. I wondered if I would ever write again. When I started back to work, I pondered how to begin. Would the ideas come back?

I began by searching my files. (I still keep paper files—love those hard copies.) I discovered many articles and stories in progress, or ready to submit. I made a list of seventeen pieces to work on. My goal: to submit one article, filler, poem, etc. a week. Two acceptances so far.

Many of the pieces waiting idly in my file cabinet needed updating. Some were ten years old. Ancient history. And, surprise, I’ve grown and learned more about life and can revamp some writing to reflect a maturity I didn’t have a decade ago.

Happily, now that I’m writing regularly, ideas are flowing in again.

Are you at one of those places where you feel dry? Try mining your files. There’s probably some gold in there. Dig it out. Reshape it, freshen it up. Aim it at a new market you just found. Cash the check. Save the clip.

New ideas will come, but revisit the files once in awhile for some small gem you can share with the world.

                                                                            Pat Zabriskie