A Daunting Task & Is It Worth It?

Through the years I have written hundreds upon hundreds of poems, short stories and misc. ramblings. Over time many have been lost or destroyed including those that I personally destroyed at the time of my husbands death. Reading them made the memories unbearable so, in my grief, I thought it would lessen the pain if the words were not written down. Of course that was not the case. The words written on paper did not magically hold the memories nor did it lessen my pain once I destroyed the paper upon which they were written. The pain, though still felt at times, has softened, become more absorbed, understood
and bearable. The precious, irreplaceable memories remain seared deep within my heart. They are not held there by words written on destructible paper but by an unfading and enduring love that echos through time.

As time moved on I started to write again. It was then and continues to be therapeutic. I have filled pages and pages over the past 30 years and am now attempting to organize them for possible publication. I have no delusions of financial gain. It is merely a somewhat selfish desire of mine to see a few published before my death.

The first step is to gather together all that I have written up to now. Once done, the collection will then require sorting so each piece can be placed into it’s specific themed category. After that they have to be read and sorted into “for publication” or “not for publication” piles. When completed all those that make it into the for publication pile will need to be reread for certainty. Those that remain in the for publication pile will need to be proofed for spelling, punctuation and misc. corrections and then reread again just to be sure all corrections needed were caught.

It’s all overwhelming. I find myself wondering if it’s worth it simply to have a few things I’ve written published. And, as in everything I do I wonder if there’s something more financially beneficial I could be doing? I don’t have the answers so I guess, for right now, I will work on the first step by gathering all my writings into one folder. Step number one, then number two. One task at a time …………..