Out With the Old, In With the New

✍️ Yesterday, an IT man came to our house, wearing mask and gloves. He was going to set up my new laptop and transfer the important things from the old hard drive. I was back and forth from living room to office answering and asking questions.

When he finished, I sat down to check out this new computer. Much of it was familiar while other parts will require a bit of learning. I decided to wait until this morning when my mind was a little fresher. It’s taking some time to get things set. I’m sure I’ll be pleased once all is done.

It would be nice if we could do this in our writing world, too. Out with all the old pieces that weren’t written to the highest standards and the rejected ones. Then, we could start all over again.

 But wait a minute. While my old computer has hit the cyber recycle bin, minus the hard drive, those stories, essays and poems that didn’t work out can be be recycled. Pull them out. Read objectively. See if you find places that can be redone. Then start working.

Look at things like:

• Clarity
• Redundancy
• Word repetition
• Overdoing adjectives and adverbs
• Stilted dialogue
• Too much telling
• Not enough showing
• Spelling and punctuation

Reworking many of the items listed above can make a world of difference. And you have the ‘out with the old, in with the new’ after all!