Throwing things away is important.
I don't throw things away. I am a hoarder: of possessions, of defunct gear, but most especially of text.
Writing in the modern age is an unusual creative pursuit in that editing is a matter of changing what's on the screen. If you are making sketches on paper, you can do some editing in pace but gross changes mean you need to throw away the old sketch and start again.
You don't have that with writing so much.
And I think that it is something that I need to consider. I can imagine writing new drafts of a book as I go along. Indeed, my last two NaNoWriMo projects have been rewrites of a draft from a few years ago and that has been mostly fairly useful.
I think in part my own tendencies in this direction can be traced to my work as a software writer, where source control systems track changes made so that nothing need be lost.
But that's five minutes.
Posted by Dunx at February 12, 2009 06:42 AM
What software do you write in? And, I suppose, what file format do you save in? Source control can still be your friend in these matters.
Especially if -- as often with code, in my experience -- the real function of that safety net is just to give you leave to ditch material that you know only half works and which you haven't the least intention of ever going back to once you summon up the nerve to rewrite it.
An ostensible assurance that your changes will not be irrevocable is just the thing for enabling irrevocable changes.