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Winter Sunshine: Full Steam into Spring
 Posted by Kate Parker Feb 15 2011, 12:01 am in golden heart, Spring Cleaning, Winter Writing Festival Here in the Back of Beyond, the temperature is in the sixties, the sun is shining, and green shoots are poking their heads above ground. Bulbs will soon be in flower and buds are swelling on branches. Even what passes for grass here, a weed that spreads sideways instead of growing upward and carries the ominous name of centipede, is changing from its winter brown to spring green. In most places, winter still has a frozen grip, and this has been the worst winter in memory. But not for much longer. Soon, everyone will be able to breathe in the sweet scents of life bursting up from the earth. And that means -
It’s time for spring cleaning. No, not that kind, although if anyone loves to wash windows or paint, my house could make you very happy. I’m talking about writer spring cleaning. Those full manuscripts sent in with our magnificent Golden Heart entries that we’ve been reworking all winter? They need to be polished, and soon. 38 more days until the Golden Heart calls go out. And along with those bright and shiny full manuscripts, we need dazzling query letters and pithy synopses. Once they’re ready, it’s time to open the windows and let the breezes carry our words out into the world. Too much metaphor? Sorry. Early spring makes me giddy with the possibilities a whole new cycle of life brings. And a whole new cycle of contests. If you’ve spent the Winter Writing Festival working on a new idea and want to take it for a spin in the great world outside your computer, there are a slew of RWA chapter contests waiting to give you feedback. While we’re on the subject of spring cleaning, when was the last time you cleaned your writing area? Really cleaned it? Between dust bunnies large enough to become critique partners and stacks of papers which would be useful if I could put my hand on the right one when I need it, my writer’s cave will benefit from a day spent cleaning and organizing. Is your computer scrubbed clean of cookies and spam, and are all your files backed up? Have you cleaned unnecessary files out of your documents section and then dumped your recycle bin? That should be part of spring cleaning, too. Make a daily habit of backing up all your new work on flash drives, or an external hard drive, if you aren’t doing that now. There’s one more step I find invaluable. Once I think my writing is cleaned, polished, ironed, and scrubbed to a shine, I like another check. I’ve looked at my work waaay too long, and no longer see the typos and the logic breaks. My critique partners, Merry and Lyla, provide the white glove exam. Before them, Gail, Peggy, and Robin performed the same necessary function. Lyla’s the newbie in our group, but I’ve discovered she has laser vision when it comes to finding the dull and predictable in my writing. She keeps me on my toes. And Merry Simmons makes certain I don’t miss the opportunity to stress the emotion in my scenes. Merry, whose writing is always fresh and sparkling, is one of the three finalists in the Romantic Times/Brava contest. Voting for the winner began yesterday. With talent like hers, she’s already a winner and I expect to have a published critique partner soon. What’s your number one trick for spring cleaning? Either writing or house, because I have to do both, and I’m sure you do too. Let us know. Share:
              
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Hi, Kate! I love seeing those first signs of spring.
I hadn’t thought of tidying up my computer’s innards. I’ll set a few days aside for that. My physical writing space also needs a good cleaning because there isn’t actually any free space available.
My number one tip is be ruthless with clutter. If in doubt, throw it out. Can I add another tip that really helps me? Clear one room or one corner of a room at a time and work methodically through the house.
Hey, Vanessa,
I like your idea about starting with one room or one corner of a room and working out from there. That brings a sense of order to what for me is a disorganized mess, as I bring order out of chaos in my office.
Windows. I do them first. Silly? Yes, but I need the sunshine through sparkling windows. Illuminating the clutter may not thrill everyone—I know it doesn’t thrill me—but there’s something wonderful in all that sparkle and shine. It lifts the spirits and boosts energy so digging through the clutter isn’t so terrible.
No shoots or buds here, yet, but I’ll soon be walking outside to check daily. I love the renewal and affirmation of spring.
Darling, you’ve just gotten me off my butt to clean the windows! Who knew I had such a pretty view from here?
Glad my little idiosyncracy helped you find that view.
I can’t wait to wash my windows, since I have great views, but that means opening the windows. I need at least 75 degree weather outside before I want to open a window.
Great point about computer spring cleaning, Kay. Despite firewalls, malware protection and ‘bot programs up the wazoo, I recently picked up a virus on my home desktop unit that hijacks my browser, and causes spontaneous reboots. Today I need to check my back-ups and copy over some last-minute files before I before I wipe the thing clean and rebuild.
with TASTE ME is being released in two weeks, the timing on this is NOT great.
Tamara That’s awful. At least you know how to fix it. Can’t wait for Taste Me to come out!
I mis-read that as “spontaneous robots,” and I imagined you doing the robot every now and then while you work.
Tamara, that has to be frustrating. As Rita says, it’s good you know how to fix it. I’d have to do a gremlin ridding dance, and that doesn’t work well.
We’re all excited about Taste Me coming out.
Last week I cleaned out a lot of computer files. Deleted duplicate photos. HA! I was supposed to be doing taxes. Here, Florida, spring cleaning involves washing a coat of yellow pollen off of anything outside every other day or even every day. Salt air builds up on windows and if they aren’t done every couple of months the salt etches the glass. I’m way behind on power washing. Been too cold this winter but warm up is here. Inside writing area needs to be dejunked and two closets emptied. The only way I get through all of it is by listening to audio books.
Hey, Rita,
Listening to audio books while spring cleaning sounds like a great suggestion. Thank you. We don’t have our inch of yellow pollen yet. From the looks of our plants, that day will be here soon.
I always look forward to spring. And in my yard the jonquils are starting to show their little green heads. I have a few early-blooming narcissus that will be in bloom by the first week of March. They never fail me. Their green shoots are now about five inches or so. Another 70 degree day like we had yesterday and they will burst forth.
Because our family is mourning a death, these signs of spring are especially welcome. They remind me that life is wonderful and that it goes on.
I can’t wait for the end of March when the Wisteria will bloom. For five days out of every year, I sit under it, listening to the drone of bees and I’m content.
My condolences, Hope. I think God the creator designed flowers blooming and plants turning green to brighten our souls. And your Wisteria sounds wonderful.
Well, I’ve been slogging through everything I put aside while I was on deadline, so I’m still staring at piles of stuff. But as soon as I get stuff up to speed, I want to get my house in order. We moved at a VERY inoportune time and I still need to have a huge garage sale to get rid of stuff.
As to my writing, I’m starting clean with a new story series that I hope I can sell. I’ll still have some revisions come in, but I’m feeling good about starting something new.
The garden is starting to creep back to life and the crepe myrtles are trimmed back. Can’t wait for spring
Yes, garage sale signs are a sign of spring. LOL Good luck with the new stories, and congrats on having your crepe myrtles trimmed. I’ve got to do that in the next couple of weeks, which means setting a fire under my DH. He gets very nervous when I bring out the electric hedge trimmer, probably from the days when I wrote romantic suspense.
OMG, I was just talking to someone this morning about how badly I need to clean out my desk. I’ve got research files that go back ten years. Like any of that would still apply?
Thanks for the pep talk, Kate.
Laurie, I know you’re supposed to get rid of clutter, but I always need something after I’ve thrown it out. I suppose I need to take that chance and start weeding my office.
If only my body didn’t ache so damn much today, I’d head outside to do a little hoeing and trimming. The snow damaged my glorious stands of rosemary, and I’m a little afraid to see how far back I’ll need to cut.
But maybe after this cuppa…thanks for the kick in the pants, Kate.
Cut back as needed without worry, Jamie. It will grow back thicker and more glorious than ever. Taking off the terminal buds forces the branches to make shoots on the sides and fill in. So trim with confidence.
What about lavender and sage? Lavender seems like it’d be similar to the rosemary, which certainly does love to be trimmed, but I’m worried about hacking the sage to death.
I’m no horticulturist, but I don’t hesitate with either. Just don’t shave them. Make sure you leave enough leaves and/or buds to do the photosythesis thing plants need to survive. If you’re cutting way back, you might want to wait until you can actually see the buds along the stem. If you’re just taking them back a few inches, have at it.
Only 38 days until the GH calls go out? Guess I’d better start looking @ my entry MSs instead of my NaNo one, eh?
As for cleaning, I spent last week decluttering my bedroom (instead of earning WWF points). Now, I can see almost every surface. (Still have one dresser to go. Then, it’s time to tackle the “home office” … read: junk collecting room.)
Unfortunately, no translation needed, Arlene. *sigh*
The roommate and I have talked about turning it into a home gym, especially since my office is usually in Starbucks (love the laptop). But that would entail cleaning it out first. I’m scared to go in there.
Arlene, how wonderful to have a Starbucks for an office. We don’t have them in the back of beyond, so my office is rooted to my house or the back porch.
I’m currently lusting after filing cabinets on Craigslist. Gotta love a good spring organizational binge.
Absolutely, Vivi. One of my favorite places to shop is at Staples. All those wonderful office supplies. Filing cabinets, and all those great color-coordinated things you can put inside for organization, is wonderful.
Is Spring around the corner?! Oh, now I’m giddy!
I’ve been thinking I need to weed through my writer’s bookshelf. I no longer have an office (that became a nursery a year ago), but I have everything condensed onto a bookshelf. And I do mean condensed. I need to go through old copies of RWRs, Writer’s Digest, etc., as well as my notes from various workshops. Besides, it’ll help me put together those workshop proposals I’ve been wanting to do for some upcoming conferences. Hmmmm…. maybe a workshop on organization!
Anne Marie, we could all stand a workshop on organization. From organizing our writing area to the organization of the details of our characters and our writing business files, keeping up with all the files and paper we generate is difficult but important. Thanks for a great idea for another blog. I hope to see one from you on this subject soon.