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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.
Good morning. This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to keep great pieces of work you produce, even if you don't end up using the work in the way you thought you would.
What's on the cutting room floor today might be just what you want in the future.
Today's tip, like another this week, comes from my interview with Mary Laura Philpott for my other podcast, Best of Both Worlds.
Mary Laura is a writer best known for her memoirs, I Miss You When I Blink and Bomb Shelter.
In our conversation about her writing and editing process, Mary Laura told me that she saves everything she writes.
Rather than saving one draft over the next, she archives past drafts.
That way, if she decides that she likes how she structured a narrative better in an earlier draft than the latest draft, she can easily restore the earlier text to her piece.
By archiving, she gets over the fear that she'll cut something she wishes she hadn't.
This allows her to edit boldly, as she puts it.
She explained, I never want to be shy about edits because I'm worried I can't get something back.
This is such a smart strategy.
In addition to keeping old drafts intact, Mary Laura also has a document titled Legos, where she saves bits of text that she loves but doesn't end up using right away.
She explains that perhaps in the future she will build something else with a text that's cut, just like you would with old Legos.
With writing, you can easily see how this could work.
A phrase that you cut from one essay may become the seed from which a poem grows.
A description of a landscape that you cut from a travel essay may spark an idea for a mystery set in that place.
My time management fable, Juliet's School of Possibilities, sprang from a few scenes in a much longer novel I wrote once and then mostly abandoned.
On a more mundane level, the first draft of your bio may hit the wrong tone for your high school reunion blurb, but it could be just right, for the website of a nonprofit where you serve on the board.
Having a Legos file for future building is relevant for fields besides writing, too.
A lesson plan that you decide isn't the way you want to approach teaching your class this week could be perfect for your students next year.
A layout for a living room that your client thinks she doesn't want might be the one she comes back to after exploring other arrangements.
Or, maybe the design will spark your thinking about how to arrange a different space for another client in the future.
Long -time listeners know how much I love Legos, which adds to my enthusiasm about Mary Laura's tip.
But if Legos aren't the metaphor for you, call your repository something different.
Building blocks, lost and found, loose diamonds, or just outtakes.
Whatever works for you.
But do create such a repository.
If your work involves generating ideas and possibilities, keep all your good work.
Even if you don't think a given bit is right for the task at hand, if it's a good idea, you just might find the perfect home for it in the future.
You can build an amazing Lego creation with the cast -offs from a set that started as something else.
In the meantime, this is Laura, thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at BeforeBreakfastPod.
That's B -E the number four, then breakfast P -O -D.
You can also shoot me an email at beforebreakfastpodcast at iheartmedia .com.
That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much. I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
John Stewart is back in the host chair at The Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show, Ears Edition Podcast.
Join Late Night Legend, John Stewart, and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews, and more.
Now this is the second term we can all get behind.
Listen to The Daily Show, Ears Edition, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, it's Mike and Ian.
We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.
Each week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them.
Questions like, how do you survive the Bermuda Triangle?
How do you find a date inside the Bermuda Triangle?
We can't help you, but we will find someone who can.
Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast on iHeartRadio.
