Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Some thoughts on rejection with a side of Tim Burton

My laptop got, well, sick last week.  It hasn't totally crashed but not everything quite works anymore.  So, my adorable husband headed off to Best Buy and came home with a shiny new computer for yours truly.  Hi there, pretty new flat screen monitor.  Nice to meet you, too!

I took the opportunity to clean my office.  A very scary task.  "Before" and "after" for your viewing pleasure:










I did a huge purge of DRAFTS (my writing career is so bad for trees though, honestly, I try to work online as much as I can).  Here is a big bag of paper bound for the recycling bin. 

In there, along with some revisions of Audition, are drafts of manuscripts that will never see the light of day because they would and should be rejected.  Strangely (except for the environmental issue), the sight of all that paper does not make me despair.  I wrote, and still write, to learn.  And it's okay to put words on the page that will never be bound between covers.  For me, those words have to come first and I am grateful for them.  The dust I could live without!

Where does Tim Burton figure into this?  Did you know he once had a picture book manuscript rejected by Disney?  I know you're curious!

10 comments:

Matthew MacNish said...

I would love to have room in my house to have an office. Yours looks great!

Molly/Cece said...

I love your office. I hope that you kept copies of those manuscripts that should not see the light of day somewhere.

You office looks nifty. And a calendar and decoration! Fancy. :)

Stasia said...

Thanks for stopping by, Matthew and Molly. Let me tell you, cleaning my office took forever. And the dust was scary!

Jessica L. Brooks (coffeelvnmom) said...

I bet getting everything cleaned out and organized like that made you want to dive right into work! I too, need to get rid of a bunch of old drafts. Maybe I'll work on that this week!

Jessica

Stasia said...

Office cleaning is definitely very cathartic though I found it kind of hard to part with some of the old drafts. Thanks for stopping by, Jessica!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

You have a nice office and a very understanding husband. That's at least two qualities that will make you a success in the future.

Laura S. said...

Nice office and so sweet of your hubby to get you a new computer! That's good you recycle your old drafts and papers!

Stasia said...

Thanks, Michael & Laura! My office is actually very tiny but my desk is right by a nice big window so I get a lot of good afternoon sunlight, which is nice :)

Carol Riggs said...

Nice before and afters! :) I don't worry toooooo much about printing up drafts; I can always use the pages later for scratch paper and notepaper (cut into 1/4s). ;o)

Stasia said...

You know, I never thought about using the reverse side of drafts for scratch paper. Thanks, Carol!