Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to sit down and read through a short story draft of mine. It had lingered in the archives of my Google Drive folder for a couple of years before I retrieved it. Only recently, in an attempt to get myself digitally organized, did I even find it.
At first, when I read through it, I thought, "Well, it needs work."
I'm no stranger to the revision process. Once you get started, you can begin to get into the groove and make improvements.
For this story, though, I couldn't get myself going. Finally, I asked myself, "What about this story do I not like?"
I realized that, while I knew the writing needed polishing, I just didn't like the plot. It ended up being a murder mystery, and don't get me wrong, I love mysteries. I love reading them and listening to mystery-based podcasts. I love watching mystery movies.
Writing them, though? I just couldn't imagine doing it. I reconsidered directing the plot line in a different direction, but instead decided to let the story unfold completely.
Sometimes we get there as writers. A sign of growth is knowing when to let go.
Yet, I didn't just click the archive button or put it into the folder where stories go to no longer see the virtual light of day.
I went through it. I grabbed snippets of phrasing I liked and saved them in my OneNote app. Later, I plan to do the same with other stories I've had to let go.
This myriad of creative sentences could spark a new story. These are fragments that I hope will become a mosaic of inspiration. It's like starting a garden. You have to put the seed in the soil, right? Sometimes, a sentence or a phrase can inspire a completely new story.
So if you have bid adieu to old stories, don't be afraid to grab the fragments that you love. You never know what might come next.
Nicole Pyles is an overworked writer. She loves the Lord and spending time with her family. She dreams vividly and loves writing metaphors in her fiction. When she's not checking her email obsessively, she enjoys watching old episodes of Twilight Zone and black-and-white monster movies. If you ever want to be on podcasts, let her know. And if you have a podcast, you could be her new best friend.
1 comments:
It's important we don't let our work languish, so kudos to you for taking what worked in your story and saving it for another project! I've done this myself lately with creative nonfiction. I had a few essays that have been sitting on my hard drive from when I first began dabbling in the art form. Now that I've taken a few workshops and swapped pieces with other writers, I see my earlier essays needed a lot of work but there are still parts that may work somewhere else. I should do this more with my shorter pieces of fiction, too.
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