Wasted Words?

I’ve just been looking through some bags of ‘stuff’ I have carefully stored in our house, and realise I have written so many bits and pieces over my years, scraps and scribbles, responses to workshops, ideas written down in writing groups, hand-written, and then forgotten …

If there is a certain number of words to write in a life, I suspect I’ve written all of those words, and more, but what have I done with them? As I looked, I remembered some of what had happened at he particular events, and I realised that some of those words were re-used, to become actual typed up words, and so began another life, in another form.

Some of the words I read probably are now in yet another format, that of a printed book, and surely that is the finest format there is for a book? I certainly think it is. A printed book, the kind of thing you’d find on a bookshelf, either in a home, or library, that is what books are supposed to do, hold words, ever-ready and waiting to be read …

One of our bookshelves

But if I never do anything with those thousands of scrappy hand written words in notebooks and on scraps of paper in those bags, were the words wasted? What do you think? I remember trying to drive a manual car, after learning to drive in an automatic car. Bunny hops, and stalls were my usual fate, until, finally, after much practise, I could change gears, smoothly, and the car would move forward at the proper pace, and with no stalling, and none of those embarrassing bunny hops …

And maybe it’s the same with all of those notes I have, in all of those bags. I was practicing the craft of writing, trying to ‘drive the car’, of my writing career. Some of the workshops in those notes, were workshops I paid to attend, some were workshops others paid me to attend. So in the terms of our modern life, obviously, if others will pay for my work (presenting a workshop), then obviously the words written for the workshops have worth.

And the other words? Well, as with driving, I was writing to achieve smooth writing, that moved along, a thought, a poem, as story, a book, even. There are notes which related to my book series (three of which have been published). There are notes about another book series, which has been, not abandoned, but repurposed, and when the time is right, I may get those notes, words, out again, and move them along the road toward publication too …

So in fact, those words are not wasted, they were valuable to write, practising my craft, increasing my status as a writer too, to be able to present workshops to others, and being paid for it. So even if some of my words never make it into print, they were not in fact wasted at all!

Using words brings me joy, too, of course, and that is a good thing, to be able to find joy in doing what you do, and getting money for it too! What do you think, does your writing bring you joy? Or do you think writing is a waste of time, and your words are wasted? I hope you don’t think that. Practice is a good thing!