Unlock Hidden Creativity: How Organizing Your Writing History Can Transform Your Craft
Success begets success.
Freelancing can be a daunting and isolating pursuit at times, especially early on, and writers need all the encouragement they can get. Periodically revisiting my writing albums over the years has been vastly therapeutic, bolstering my confidence when spirits sag. And watching my body-of-work grow, sale by sale, has helped silence my inner critic by reminding me: “Hey! You did it before—you can do it again!”
Living history at a glance.
Viewing these binders illuminates the different stages of my personal life, as well as my writing career, by tracing the topics that interested me and the diverse people and experiences I encountered along the way. I see my struggles and joys as a new mother reflected in sales from one decade, and my romantic fantasies in another. More recently, artists and artisans have been my focus, along with some personal revelations. Perusing an album, even decades later, can trigger surprisingly vivid memories of editors I worked with or words, phrases, and paragraphs I struggled to get just right. Recalling how hard I labored to earn each acceptance drives home the fact that, as freelance writers, we basically apply for hundreds of jobs during the course of our careers. Talk about perseverance and stamina! A writer’s life is filled with so many rejections, yet so many acceptances, too—as your ever-growing albums will show.
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