I am going through my old files and it is shockingly onerous for something that doesn't involve actually picking up or moving real files. It's just going through my hard drive and Google drive and consolidating all these little disorganized orphans in one place (and then making a backup, obvs.) I hated feeling like I have all these ideas out there in various places, like I was just sitting on gold!
Here is the truth. Since I started doing this, around Christmas, I've sold one piece so far out of the maybe 100Â that I've filed away. So that's good. But I think the real reason why it's hard to organize is facing this graveyard of my files. There are so many things in there that went nowhere, or weren't accepted, or were just forgotten and they're too dated to do anything with. I hate that feeling of wasted effort, but I guess I should think a.) "Wow, go me for still working hard even when a lot of the stuff you do is a failed start/failure "and b.) "You will be so happy once you have all your stuff in one place so keep going."
This also brings me to a major lesson of freelancing--it's not so much knowing what to do with your stuff but having a place to put it all. When I first started this project I thought for some reason that I'd need to figure out what to do with every file I opened (sell it, repurpose it, send it out on a boat and set the boat on fire, etc.) That would take FOREVER and probably give me a nervous breakdown. But really all I need are some pretty broad-but-clear files to send them all. Right now here are some that I have:
- Unsold humor
- Unsold essay
- Unsold fiction
- Unsold ideas and pitches
- Unsold nonfiction books
- Life and times (This is where I put all my files that don't involve work but I held onto for sentimental reasons, like files I had from my wedding or the hospital packing list when I was pregnant with the boys.)
Then I have a file for each of my clients for the stuff that's in progress. I feel like half of freelancing is just putting things out of sight so I don't feel overwhelmed, but making sure I draw myself a really easy-to-read map for all this buried treasure*.
*word used ironically