Metaquestion - is research ever left over?

[oursin]

Proviso: I am writing as a historian with a large number of physical and digital files of research materials relating to books and articles already written and published, as well as stuff I took notes on or had copied that wasn't strictly relevant to the project I was working on but looked interesting.

Even the files specifically created for a particular project contain a fair amount of material which didn't get into the finished product.

Nonetheless, I hang on to these files, on the grounds that
a) I may need to go back to the original materials at some point;
b) The stuff I didn't use might come in for another project.

I'm perfectly happy, should someone mention something they're researching, which makes me go 'aha! I found something of relevance in X archives when I was looking for something slightly different', to pass on copies of anything of relevance I might have to them.

But I'm really, really, reluctant to think that the basic materials are ever actually finished with.

Is this terribly idiosyncratic of me, or do other people hang on to research in case it might come in handy at some future date?

Anyway, this is a sort of excuse for why I've never actually posted anything to this community, in spite of the aforesaid files.

Comments

[msilverstar]

I read the "leftover" part as "the part I didn't get to explain in the story/post".

Being an amateur, I may not have any use for it later, and even if I do, I don't lose for having shared. Posting here gets me to organize my thoughts, and that's good.

[commodorified]

That was the original meaning of 'leftover', but nothing in the rules should ever be read in such a way as to deprive us of Cool Stuff, or at least that's my hope. :-)