Alice Buell Lawrence

I have a very dear friend who is a visual artist, a painter. They have all of the talent in the world. They enter juried shows and art exhibitions and the like; in fact, they just got accepted to one yesterday. I can’t wait to attend.

We talk every day. Yesterday we were talking about how we keep track of everything we’re entering: their shows, my submissions. I’ve been resisting going to a spreadsheet, keeping everything in a Pages document, but the organization simply isn’t good enough. They shared their spreadsheet with me, and it’s so detailed. Colour-coded! Dates and places! Columns for everything!

I created one for myself. It was interesting to see how many stories I have complete and ready for either a heavy dose of editing or for circulation: 39 of them sit in one column. I have probably about that many in progress or just as fragments, too. Creating a spreadsheet for them means I’ll be able to get more of them in circulation and tracked, as well as managing simultaneous submissions and the like.

It’s nascent, but it exists now. Compared to the one my friend has, it’s so, so basic. But it will grow and hopefully help me get to where I want to be. I’ve resisted spreadsheets because they feel far to business-y for me, like I should be far more dressed up and in an office and running a version of Quickbooks in the background or something. I get the utility of a spreadsheet, but there was always something vaguely inelegant about them that felt like was seeping in. Maybe I don’t like acknowledging that publishing is, in fact, a business. That there is a commercial side to art.

But there is, and I am pursuing it, so no room for complaints. Hence a spreadsheet. Keep your fingers crossed for me. And for them, too.