5 Things To Cull From Your Writing Space
Also: Two weeks to go for the year-end planning workshop!
The Clothesline is written by a real person: Me! I’m Vanessa Chiasson, a writer and business coach based in Ottawa, Canada. I write travel and human interest narratives and I love reading, birds, beach glass, lattes, and nachos.
TWO WEEK COUNTDOWN!
My popular year-end planning workshop takes place in just two weeks, on Friday, Dec 6th. We’ll be looking at everything we need to do to get ready for 2025, from outlining goals and action steps to breaking down finances. AND… we will be spending time perfecting a pitch (or project proposal or similar) so you will be ready to hit the ground running once the calendar flips over to January 2025. It’s a day that’s as practical as it is philosophical.
This year’s planning day is more focused (four hours, instead of six), more affordable (tickets are just $99 Canadian) and - as always - open to all writers and self-employed creatives no matter where they are in their career.
Paid newsletter subscribers get an extra bonus: You get to bring a friend for free! Feel free to either gift a ticket to a writer you love or perhaps split the cost with a friend. Just send me a note to let me know their name/email address so I can add them to my list.
Read more details and register here.
5 Things To Cull From Your Writing Space.
For most of us, winter is just around the corner. That means it’s time to nest, to get cozy, to settle into a new rhythm and routine. You deserve a snug, satisfying office for every season and this is the perfect time of year to happily declutter and get ready for whatever storms are headed your way, real or otherwise.
Far be it for me to say or do anything that would convince you to blow off work this afternoon in favour of a full scale office makeover but if you’re looking to take a few five minute breaks to get your ducks in a row and freshen things up, all while letting go of some guilt-inducing items, this is the list for you.
Business cards
This one hurts because I LOVE stationary and I love my business cards too but the truth is that there are precious few people in the world who carry a business card but don’t have any kind of LinkedIn presence.
Unless you’re willing to sit down right now and add everyone on LinkedIn, just toss them all. Do it. You won’t regret it. I thought the key to my using business cards more was to store them in a pretty mint green box with silver writing from the Laduree macaron shop in Paris. I ended up using them even less.
Brochures
Do you know why it’s so hard to cull brochures? It’s not because we think we will need the info one day (we all know we can find it online). It’s because we didn’t do as much writing about the destination or event as we thought, and we’re holding onto the colourful cardstock reminder in hopes that it will trigger inspiration. Finally, FINALLY, you’ll turn that state park hike from the 2019 Montana press trip into literal and figurative gold.
Let them go. You’re looking ahead, not backward
Office supplies
In my 10-plus years of writing, I’ve needed to send express mail exactly twice. So, naturally, I opened a FedEx account and stored every envelope, packing slip, and customs paperwork imaginable for them in a banker’s box and kept it kicking around for years until I finally said bye-bye!
We don’t need at least half of the office supplies we keep. Let them go, donate them to a teacher, or let your desk drawers breathe.
Reference books and inspirational memoirs on how to be a writer
There are maybe six that I have read more than once—and about six dozen that I didn’t need to buy. If I had spent as much time brainstorming stories and pitching them as I did on tracking down books about brainstorming and pitching them, I’d be much further ahead of the game! Donate to your local library.
Junky writer-themed knick-knacks from well-meaning friends.
I’m going to do a Christmas gift post about this one day, but in the meantime, I’m here to say that it’s 100% okay to donate any book or writer-themed gifts you’ve gotten over the years, including mugs that say things like “I’m a writer. I turn coffee into words”. If anyone ever enters your inner sanctum and asks where it went, say you had to get rid of it while doing a ritualist cleansing of your space after it was tainted during your witchcraft research. Works every time. Don’t have anything in your writing space that doesn’t speak to you.
Happy weekend, friends.
Vanessa
PS: Don’t forget, all subscribers have access to these great freebies.
12 Ways To Repurpose Old Content (awesome for bloggers, if I do say so myself!)
FREE travel budget template: You can download it free by clicking here. If you love travel lists like me, this is your resource.