The shortest rewrite in history, and other tales of the day

[desperance]

The edited draft of the new book was returned to me yesterday, for further work; my new new editor had extra quibbles.

Um, three of them. Which took me about ten minutes, total rework time. Hee.

So that's gone, and I am about to head off into town and try to write something new, see if I can remember how that's done. I seem to have been rewriting for ever, and I am bored with it. I do still have more to do (including a short story that is unaccustomedly and actually short, but has come back with more pages of notes than this whole damn novel ever did, and I haven't the least notion what to do about it), but I want to splash awhile in the freshet of new words.

Also, I have a physio appointment, where I am expecting to be scolded. I am, um, rather stiff today, and my hand is tingling badly. I may have overdone things these last two days, despite having Mark around for the heavy hauling. Trouble is, of course, while I'm busy and active I don't feel the hand so much, so...

Anyway. There it is. And here I am, in a semi-reconstituted office, still with bare shelves and full boxes. I am, as we have established in earlier conversations, a hoarder. As frumpo points out in a comment to yesterday's post, one of the things I apparently hoard is padded envelopes. I thought I just kept them for re-use, but I had not at all realised that I had quite this many; and it is true that the last year or two I have mostly been using new ones bought for the purpose, as being cleaner and easier and just nicer at both ends, both to send and to receive.

I could empty some boxes at a stroke, by disposing of all these accumulated Jiffies. But I don't want to just sling them away, when they are the definition of reusable. And there are no handy depots, where you can leave them for other people's use. I don't know what to do. Eep.

I shall go to town, where I won't have to think about it for a while.

ETA: just got another one. People send me things, y'know? In padded envelopes. And I am conditioned to open them with care, and...

And they can't even go into the recycling, mostly, because they're lined with bubble-wrap and even if I stripped that out the envelope is generally brown, and our recycling people take neither bubble-wrap nor brown envelopes. Sigh...

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

one of the things I apparently hoard is padded envelopes

Oh God yes. The other week I got rid of about 50 of the damned things, some of which were compeltely unusable.

Your council recycling people need slapping for not taking brown paper.

[bellinghwoman.livejournal.com]

Do you have a Freecycle group in your area? FWIW, that would be my first port of call for this sort of thing.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

A local play-group might be able to do something with the envelopes. Also any charity that posts out stuff -- it would be worth enquiring.
Yay on rewrites being complete. You rock.
Oh, and I just read The Garden. Wonderful. It kept me up till two a.m. (the marquis is underwhelmed by that bit). And how could you do that to Jake? Jake is lovely! I now need to read your entire back catalogue....

[khaybee.livejournal.com]

Seconding the freecycle idea. It is great to get rid of things you don't need when they are going to someone who wants them. The free area of craigslist works, too.

[song-of-copper.livejournal.com]

Hehe, padded envelopes... I'm glad it's not just me who does that! I think it comes of growing up in a frugal household. My mother once bought some very expensive, thick and shiny Christmas wrapping paper from Laura Ashley, and we would see this paper every year (smaller and smaller bits of it, year by year)... she had her own stash of Jiffy bags, naturally (they used to live 'under the stairs' in that Tardis-like glory hole that every good house should have!). Mine are stacked, like mattresses for a picky princess, in the bottom drawer of my desk... I wonder if I shall ever use one?!

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

We've always kept padded envelopes, but since we decided to sell off our unwanted books, we're getting through the accumulated hoard at quite a rate.

Have you thought about offering your stash on uk.freecycle.org? We used it to get rid of the TV, VCR etc, but I've seen people offering all sort of random stuff including those polystyrene packaging peanuts.

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

I see I've been beaten to the freecycle suggestion. Twice. So thirding it.

[frumpo.livejournal.com]

I freecycled a pack of transparency film - the sort you write on when using an overhead projector. I was surprised that anyone wanted it as I haven't seen an OHP for years but a local school was pleased to take it off my hands.

[irishkate.livejournal.com]

Is there anything you could wear on your hand to stop yourself from using it?

[irishkate.livejournal.com]

We finally decided to institute a new family rule after the same wrapping paper was used 20 years after its debut - All wrapping paper must go in the fire immediately.

[abserdman.livejournal.com]

Fourthing! I got rid of a big box of dog food on there the other day.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

(they used to live 'under the stairs' in that Tardis-like glory hole that every good house should have!)

Tick. Got one of those. It's full, alas...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You got rid? Of dog food? Don't tell me you have a fussy dog... (NB I am assuming you did not get rid of Sparky at the same time...)

[devonellington.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Do you have Freecycle in your area? You could offer the box of re-usable padded envelopes and someone would come and pick them up.

Enjoy working on something new. Feel better soon with your hand -- coming back from an injury can take awhile, and you hit those plateaus along the way.

Hey, when are you going to join Twitter? I'm @DevonEllington.

I've found it helpful, but addictive. And I assumed I'd hate it and quit in a day!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Heh. My understanding is that you need a cellphone properly to use and appreciate Twitter? Properly to tweet, I guess the verb is?

I don't use phones, so I'm thinking I don't use Twitter either.

[abserdman.livejournal.com]

He never used to be fussy. Then I bought him very expensive kibble (Wainwrights, since you asked so nicely) and he ate it for a couple of months and then stopped.

He's now on a raw diet, spoilt pup that he is, and absolutely adores it. He can't wait for his breakfast every morning and is healthier (and poops less) for it!