Back in 2011 I did a guest post over on Notes from The
Slushpile about recycling old printed out copies of manuscripts to read press here. The post was a
bit whimsical, a tad serious and whole lot of silliness. Firstly it did have
some useful ideas on how to re-use manuscripts rather than just throwing away in
the paper recycling bin, but also had some bonkers ideas too.
Fast forward ten years, and I am back thinking about the
same issue, because I’m having building work done of my house, and had to therefore
either store of get rid of all the prints out of old versions of all my books. As storage
costs, disposing of it won, however I didn’t want to just put it in the green
bin, so we did re-use it as much a possible.
I write mostly YA – which are big books, and due to my dyslexia,
I find editing on the computer very tricky, as I need to use a ruler/finger to
track my reading, and especially with developmental edits I have to LITTERAL Cut
and Paste Roald Dahl style. So this is
lots of paper. Now I know some of you will be saying it is bad for the environment
(I know) but I do use rainforest managed paper. So ten years and nine book
later, each with multiple edits, and that is a lot of paper.
You may ask; how this can have changed since 2011? That surely
I’d be doing the same kind of re-using. You’d be right – but you’d also be wrong.
In ten years, my offspring have grown and are now teens. Teens change
everything.
Football boots…
Yep, my manuscript has been used on multiple occasions to
help my son dry his football boots. (This will be particularly funny to anyone
who actually knows my son!)
Planting…
Yes, in 2011 we were using the manuscript to make pots for seedlings. We still do this, but we also use it for projecting the floor when
the teen is tending to his plants and cuttings.
Art…
My youngest is doing GCSE Art, and one of the projects was sculpture.
This was done in the lockdown, so sourcing materials was tricky. But there was
no reason to panic when you have a box full of old manuscripts that can be
used!
FIRE…
It is the season for bonfires, and my manuscript apparently
burns well. Although as we currently have no heating, I am wondering if we should
have kept some!
Any other ideas on how to re-use, re-cycle or re-propose old
manuscripts, would be gratefully received.
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