Saving

I had wanted to share one of my short stories on this blog but when I went to find it I realized that I hadn't saved the file, I had only printed it out. Though it's annoying since I'll have to re-type the entire thing I'm still glad that I have a copy of it. Back when I was younger I received a piece of advice and now I'll pass it on to anyone out there who is interested in the arts- SAVE EVERY THING YOU DO! It doesn't matter if you never get published, or if your art never gets shown, it's still a good idea to save all of your work in one place. Years ago I was very interested in drawling. Each day I would come home from school and I would draw characters from my stories in my notebook. I wanted to be a comic book artist. All of those notebooks are stashed in my closet now, from my first attempt to draw to my most recent. Though I no longer wish to make a profession of it I'm glad that I kept all of those things. It makes me happy to see how much I was able to progress in those few years.

The same principal is true for writing. Even if the piece sucks, or if it's not finished, or if you have no idea where you were heading in it, just save it somewhere. You have no idea when you might want to go back to those characters and ideas, or build on them. That, and it's a lot of fun going through old works. You get taken back to a time when you thought differently about things and, no matter how embarassing it is, it's nice to pay homage to your past self.