CG Express

Are there any clearance rack buffs in the house? No really, is there anyone else that always checks out the clearance rack first in a store? I am a diehard, deal detective when it comes to shopping. The thing with discount items is you have to be willing to hunt and be open minded about what you find. Some of my favorite clothes have had yellow or red dot stickers on them.

For example, I have a 3X men’s night shirt, Star Wars! Cost me $4. It is huge enough to get comfortably lost in and just off beat enough to appeal to my non-conformist bent. That’s another thing about clearance. I don’t go there to look for a specific item. If a grey sweater is needed to go with a plaid skirt, I’m not wasting my time on the jam-packed rows of random clothes tucked into the corner of the store. But if I’m looking just to see what I can find, well that’s a different story.

Some may think it’s a waste of money to search through miscellaneous, cheap, new clothing just because it’s well, cheap but I’ve learned a secret about this kind of shopping. When I find something that’s not what I would usually consider buying but it’s designer or top-quality fabric and the price is slashed to just a few dollars, I often take the chance and get it. The result? I have expanded my life. What? Yes! I bought a shawl once because it seemed comfy (kind of big on my list!). I would never have bought a shawl except for the price and the promise of comfy, but I soon found out a shawl is a very versatile and fashionable article of clothing.  I did the same thing with a short purple jacket with big buttons. Don’t you know, that jacket became part of an outfit that everyone thought was super trendy (new trend…I’m not into trendy; not since high school that is). I would not shell out forty bucks on a long shot, but for eight, why not?

Enter stage right the connection to writing. It’s so easy to stick with what you usually do, subjects you typically like. You might say, “I don’t write romance” or “I write only in first person” or “I can only write characters who are just like me or my family”. Maybe it’s time to go to the clearance rack, pick out a few things and try them on. What would be a stretch into something new for your writing? For me that might be writing humor or historical fiction or maybe a short story about a lost unicorn. Who knows, you may find that you have great talent in a genre or style that you wouldn’t normally consider trying.

Give it a go, see where it takes you. Write on!