I bought a couch on Saturday and because of that I’m thinking about clips.
Buying the couch set off a chain reaction of furniture moving and closet cleaning that led from one room to another until in the end, I found myself in “the dungeon,” a closet where we keep tax returns, old AAA guidebooks and assorted files of things we can’t bring ourselves to throw away.
Tucked among these forgotten treasures are five or six boxes of my old clips. The clips from my years at the newspaper are carefully cut out of the papers, pasted onto white paper and dated – guess I had more time back then. Other boxes are full of magazines with stories I wrote but never bothered to cut out.
I’m no pack rat. I’ve moved often enough not to get sentimentally attached to too much stuff. My family still hasn’t forgiven me for donating an old Nintendo 16 game system they’re sure would be worth a lot of money on eBay.
Clips are different. They’re my legacy. They’re physical proof of what I’ve accomplished in my career.
But we’re talking hundreds of stories, maybe even thousands. Do I need to keep all of them, or only some?
And if I keep them, what’s the best way?
I’m at a loss here, and would love to know what other writers do and why.
Please take this short poll to help me determine how other writers handle storing their published work. If you’ve come up with an especially clever plan, feel free to explain in the comments section. Depending on how many responses I get, I’ll do a follow up post on the results in the not-too-distant future.
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I voted “as printouts”, but actually I’m trying to save print items as printouts and scanned electronic images and electronic items as printouts and MS Word documents.
Thanks for weighing in on this. So far, seems like most people use multiple methods.
MVR
I’m gradually scanning all my old printed articles and keeping them on my computer but it takes a loooong time.
Ann
Michelle, as a PR gal, I also have boxes of old client clips that I’ve saved. Someday I’ll hire a tech-savvy student (seriously, someone in high school could do this) to go through and scan them all. Ideally, you want someone who can reposition columns, masthead, etc. in a layout application (Illustrator, Photoshop, whatever) so most clips will look neat and tidy and fit on one or two pages. I’ve hired people to do this for one-off projects for clients in the past, but haven’t done it en masse.
Having a bigger scanner can save time in this endeavor. My advice is get one that’s a lot bigger than the standard 8.5 x 11 size because so many print publications are larger than that.
If you have a larger scanner, you could scan them yourself and just save the digital files until sometime later when you can move the pieces around on the page to make them look nicer. The sooner you scan them, the less yellowed they’ll be (if you’re scanning newspaper clippings).
@CarriBugbee
Thanks Carri – I’d never thought of hiring someone to do this, but it makes sense.
Looking forward to our chat tomorrow!
Michelle
My eventual goal is to post all past and present clips as thumbnails that expand to PDFs or online links at a resume/portfolio web site. I also frame select clips in my home office, along with rejection notices that eventually succeeded, mega kill fee check stubs, and other memorabilia. I’ve also contemplated scanning everything in to display in a digital frame as a desktop conversation piece.
Nice – I’d love to see the walls of your office, what a story they’d tell!
MVR