Keep Your Junk in the Drawer

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Once again, Red has rummaged through her junk drawer, found the right nail and hit it squarely on the head! New blogger or old, don’t miss reading this reblog of her advice to writers.

Jan Wilberg's avatarRed's Wrap

Crazy-making.jpg

Even gritty blogs need to have some class.

I know this because I have a fairly gritty blog where I’ve said some hard, rough things about my life and life around me. And occasionally, I’ve taken junk out of the drawer that should have stayed put, said things that didn’t need to be said, gone over the top.

So you might think I’m a fine one to be lecturing other people.

But, in this, my sixth year of blogging, it’s the advice to keep your junk in the drawer that rises to the top. Here’s why:

  1. There isn’t an endless supply of junk in the drawer. Even the biggest, deepest junk drawer has a finite capacity unless, of course, you are replenishing the drawer with new junk. When the drawer is empty or when you get to the little scraps of junk that aren’t all that interesting, your blogging life…

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

5 thoughts on “Keep Your Junk in the Drawer”

  2. Laura Newhampshire's avatarLaura

    Sorry, no. The reason I say this is that if you scratch the surface of what she is saying, she is saying nothing. Why? Because she fails to define what she is talking about: Junk. What is junk? To whom? Why? Is the onus on the writer to provide what is only “worthwhile” to the reader? Or is the onus on the writer to be true to his/herself, regardless of how pretty the reader considers it? Basically I’m saying, “It depends.” It depends on the purpose of the writer and the blog, the intent. Beauty, and also Junk, is in the eye of the beholder.

    For me this post read as very smug.

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      I think she is talking about being so caught up in the “junk” (neuroses) of our lives that we can’t get beyond them. I think in a way in cutting off your old blog and saying you were going on with your life into a new phase this is exactly what you were doing. She says of course we “flavor” all of our writing with the junk–just don’t let it overwhelm your life or your writing. I think she’d agree that each of us has our own selection of things in our junk drawer and just because it is called “junk” doesn’t mean we don’t consider it valuable. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t keep it! It’s just semantics. You could call it a treasures drawer as well. I absolutely love shopping in junk shops–and even in dumps, back when it was possible. For me, junk is beautiful.

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      1. Laura Newhampshire's avatarLaura

        That’s why I didn’t like her post, for you the junk equals neuroses. For someone else it is something else. Is the junk the past? Etc. I agree with your comment, though! Junk can indeed be beautiful, if so, is it really junk?

        People have said what I have posted in the past is “junk” (in so many words). There’s no telling whether a new blog (should it ever exist), from a life in a new place, would be junk or treasure. Since I’m pretty sure some would say one, some would say the other, I don’t really see the benefit of avoiding writing about some unidentified “junk.” But as I said elsewhere, I’m in a “thinking too much” mood today. 🙂

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