IWSG - on scrapbooking vs writing

reaching back into the annals of my blog, i found this post from 2009, where i ranted about working on my sequel (which, i hate to admit, means i've been working on my sequel for 6 years --- yes that's right, i said SIX years. either i'm very committed to this story or i'm a little nuts. take your pick.)

ahem... back to what i was saying about this post.... i used to be an avid scrapbooker, which goes back to 1996, back when scrapbooking was just starting. and then i found writing in 2005, and became an avid writer and gave up the scrapbooking. (i'm thinking about going back to it soon, but need a craft area and that's whole different rant.)

so, without further ado, or additional chasing of rabbit trails, my post from September of 2009, entitled, "(insert appropriate title here)"

i think i'll go back to doing scrapbook pages.

i can only speak for myself when i say that...

scrapbook pages (sbp's) do not require multiple drafts to get them "just right."

sbp's are always self-published and no one cares. (side note - this was back when self-publishing was a last resort - a lot has changed in 6 years.)

sbp's do not make you want to tear your hair out.

sbp's can be finished in an hour or less.

sbp's do not wake you up in the middle of the night, demanding to have you create one.

sbp's do not argue with you about how they want to be created or where to place a picture.

sbp's do not need timelines or calendars to help you remember where to place something because a quick sketch will do.

sbp's do not require hours of searching for that one piece of information that will make the page perfect or add page depth or realism.

sbp's do not care which point of view you use to get the idea across.

sbp's can be placed wherever you choose to place them and can be rearranged with very little problem.

sbp's do not require the help of a scrapbook critique partner or group.

sbp's can be done in a group setting while you converse with other scrapbookers.

sbp's do not require absolute quiet to complete.

sbp's do not require isbn's, out-sourced cover art, a three-year commitment to amazon.com, a barcode, multiple proofreaders, special formatting, or the purchase of proof copies.

you will never dream about kissing one of the pictures or embellishments from your scrapbook page.

no one cares about spelling or grammar on a scrapbook page.

people who have never scrapbooked will love your pages and will never tell you how they thought it could have been better if only you had done xyz.

if someone happens to not like your sbp, you won't go into a deep depression over it.

a scrapbooker has no problem calling herself a scrapbooker or paper artist, despite never having a layout published in a scrapbook magazine.

most of the time, scrapbookers are not under a tight deadline.

there are no scrapbook agents or editors out there telling a scrapbooker what to do, or asking how many other scrapbooks there are in the series, or what the scrapbooker is going to do to promote her scrapbook, or if the scrapbooker already has a fan base.

on the other hand...

sbp's do require all kinds of materials that may or may not get used, and you have to transport a lot of equipment if you want to scrapbook with other people, and i am the kind of scrapbooker who agonized over getting a page just right.

so maybe i'll keep writing.

or maybe i'll just surf the web.

pardon my ranting, but i think i have a book to go back to.

(for more IWSG posts, click the picture on my sidebar.)