The Joy of Paper
In general, I abhor clutter, cleaning out my closets regularly and avoiding buying more than I need. The glaring exception is paper records, which I save by the boxful. Part of this is government-mandated: U.S. taxpayers are supposed to save at least 5 years of Federal and state returns (or is it 7?), along with receipts and other documentation. This is no small matter: careful record-keeping saved me when I was audited in the early 2000's for a mistake my accountant made in calculating my business deductions. Because I could produce every receipt, the IRS determined that I owed no fines or penalties on the additional taxes I had to pay. But there's another reason I save paper: as a writer, I need documentary evidence to reconstruct the past.
As a filmmaker, I need climate-controlled storage for my film and video footage, masters and hard drives, and because temperatures in my house fluctuate wildly, I have to rent a storage unit. My paper records also reside there, including all my manuscripts--or so I thought when I went through the boxes recently to try to find an old screenplay that a friend was interested in pitching for television. Although I found an early draft at home, the version I was looking for--updated a few years ago for technological reasons, i.e., cell phones--existed only on a CD. True to form, the CD was damaged, so down to storage I went to find the hard copy. An hour later, I'd opened every box, uncovering not only manuscripts but things I'd entirely forgotten I had kept: the correspondence from a brief long-distance relationship when I was 17; my high school poetry; my first attempt at a screenplay; and my abacus (lessons in which were required at my elementary school in Japan). This excavation provoked considerable grunting and cursing, to the probable consternation of the possibly homeless person who was hanging out with his possessions in the next unit. The only thing it didn't uncover was the revised screenplay.
Because my father worked for a computer company, I've been hearing about the "paperless office" all my life. It's a laughable concept in light of everything I've lost due to technology: short stories stored on floppies; saved mail when I've changed computers or servers; a novel when my computer crashed; and now this script. Clearly the answer is to keep hard copies of everything; if worse comes to worst, I can always scan or retype it.
Ironically,my travails coincided with a NYT article about Marie Kondo, a Japanese household organizing expert who, in addition to teaching folding techniques, advocates getting rid of everything that doesn't "spark joy," from socks to kitchen utensils. As for papers, she simply throws them all out, on the principle that "they will never spark joy, no matter how carefully you keep them." My happiness-inspiring report cards, diplomas and awards notwithstanding, Ms. Kondo has apparently never encountered a writer, let alone the IRS, whose MO is the opposite of sparking joy. No matter: in light of the script I'm going to have to re-write again, I'm printing out everything from now on. But I am going to throw out those love letters, and maybe even that abacus.