Getting back on track or I Love Excel Spreadsheets

Well, enough talk about smoking and dress shopping. Back to the real topic of my blog. Poems!

Last night, I organized my word files and updated my submission records in Excel. I added a worksheet titled "all poems" so that I could track every draft that I have in progress and what stage it is in. Granted, I will be as likely to keep this spreadsheet up-to-date as I am to suddenly sprout wings and fly, but the dorky admin in me loved every minute of compiling my data. And, even better, it turns out I have almost 100 poems in some form. Only about 15 that I think are ready for public consumption, but 100 to work with. Theoretically, I don't have to write any new poems for my thesis, I just have to revise the ones I've got. Theoretically, I say. In reality, probably 20-30 of these "poems" are nothing more than rants or laments and they may have a line or two worthy of keeping. I'm still pretty psyched that there are 100 lines of data on my spreadsheet, regardless.

The other thing I'm proud of about all this Excel business? I realized that I have 12 poems out in submission land being considered. That's the most I've ever had out at one time! (I know, small potatoes for you professional submitters, but a big deal for this rookie.)

Next on my poetry to do list...learn how to use metaphors!