Earth Day, A Writer's Way

Happy Earth Day 2010.

Here's a photo showing how magnificient nature is. I took it last week from the front porch after a brief rain shower. Michael was outside playing kickball and ran inside yelling for us to come and look at the double rainbow. I never did find the pots of gold at the end of the rainbows, but I think the image, with my lilac bushes in the foreground, is golden!

Today is another lovely spring day. While driving Cari to school this morning I thought that with today being Earth Day there are several writerly-ways I conserve energy. Here are some of mine. If you have any, please share.

Revise: I read as much copy on the screen as possible (in large print to save on my eyesight) and try to print out as close to a final draft to save on paper.

Recycle: After printing out copies and making changes, I feed the marked-up copy back into the printer to use the reverse side on my next printout.

Refill: Refillable ink cartridges are cheaper than new ones, and they save ink.

Reuse: After my critique group marks up my copy, the edges are sometimes folded or unable to be refed back into my printer. I use those copies as scrap paper to jot down ideas or sketch out outlines.

Reduce: Reducing clutter is one of my goals this year. For the past few months I have reduced the books in my library by having giveaways on my blog.

Regift: After reviewing books for Bookreporter, I give copies to my grandchildren, my sisters, donate copies to the local library or Saturday Writers, or give away to my friends or blog visitors. (Bonus: The library gives a tax receipt.)


Renew: About once a month I bundle up items to donate to charity. Last week I cleaned out closets and drawers, and even a storage area in the basement. Afterwards I took several boxes of household items and books to our parish for a rummage sale to send the All Saints youth group to Mexico. But, darn it, they didn't take clothes, so Michael and I took the bags and boxes of used clothing, an old TV, and some books and magazines, to our local Goodwill. That spring cleaning definitely renewed my spirit and will hopefully help renew someone else. (Bonus: Goodwill gives a tax receipt for the donations.)

That's all of the writerly-ways I conserve energy, at least the ones that begin with the letter "R." If you have any suggestions, no matter what letter they begin with, I would love to read them.

The last two photos were taken this morning, shortly before writing this post. Enjoy!