[Writer’s Muse-ings] Put in the Time to Make Great Finds, or Why I Stink at Thrift-Store Shopping

I was admiring a cool room design in a magazine. It used an old library cart on wheels (a thrift-store find) as a bookcase. Love that! Functional and reflective of my love for libraries! And I happen to need some new bookshelves. So I searched online, but?nothing fit my budget. I didn’t even try actual thrift stores, because I hate thrift-store shopping and never have any luck.

Finding awesome thrift-store bargains is a lot like writing. It’s only by putting in tons of time, which you have to love the activity to do, that you come up with treasures. If you only write when you have something specific in mind or when you’re under deadline, you’ll never make those unexpected, wonderful discoveries of library carts or brand new picture book ideas. But if you’re writing constantly, scouring the shelves of your brain and the world around you for fabulous trinkets, you’ll be the one to score the $40 Rembrandt, the library cart (can I buy it from you?), or the perfect idea.

8 Responses

  1. Love this, Laura! (Although I may actually be more consistent at poking around thrift shops than I am at daily writing…)

    1. Give me a computer or a notebook over a thrift store any day! But that’s why you probably find all the good stuff at thrift stores:>)

  2. Love this, Laura! (Although I may actually be more consistent at poking around thrift shops than I am at daily writing…)

    1. Give me a computer or a notebook over a thrift store any day! But that’s why you probably find all the good stuff at thrift stores:>)

  3. I think the thing about writing is a lot like thrift stores, you just have to keep showing up, even when you don’t want to or even when it doesn’t seem very productive.

    (For decorating though I do better on Ebay, where I DID get an old oak library cart on wheels that I use in my studio for art stuff. )

  4. I think the thing about writing is a lot like thrift stores, you just have to keep showing up, even when you don’t want to or even when it doesn’t seem very productive.

    (For decorating though I do better on Ebay, where I DID get an old oak library cart on wheels that I use in my studio for art stuff. )

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