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| Maybe I should make a clip book like this. |
Do you have a massive stack of old clips sitting lonely in a box? I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I do. The frail newspaper could-set-your-house-on-fire kind. Okay, even the xeroxed almost as flammable paper kind, from junior high. The problem is figuring out whether they've outgrown their usefulness, professionally and personally.
It started out innocently enough, even naturally. I wanted to be a journalist growing up, so I saved the yellow copies of my junior high paper and the newspapers from high school. Making a spiffy neon clip book, I proudly showed my work to my college newspaper adviser. It's what I had read writers do.
She was shocked I bothered, but I became the new sports editor and the next year editor-in-chief. I took my new college clips and landed a gig as sports editor of my local paper.
That was how journalists found jobs, just over a decade ago, but I haven't had to show those clips in years. Technology has surpassed the need for paper copies and those clips aren't what consistently lands me work today.
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| My first writing portfolio, in my--admittedly lame--first college bedroom. |
Of course there is sentimental value, but do I really need a copy of every article I've written? I'm starting to think not, but still can't bring myself to toss these out. Am I just hoarding?
Do you save old writing that is no longer useful?
Photo credits: Furmum/Wikimedia Commons; Tamara McRill
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