Rediscovering Old Treasures

I had an epiphany last week. I have spent so much time over the last few months agonizing over writing a bunch of "new" stories that I completely overlooked something. A couple of things actually: the two novels I wrote for National Novel Writing Month. Here I have been bashing my head against a wall tearing apart a more recent 20,000 word manuscript, when all the while I had two hidden treasures hiding on a jump drive at the bottom of my purse.

I think I shied away from these two stories because they were (from what I remembered) awkward and clunky. I wrote them in a frenzy, just pounding out the required 1667 words a day word count. Anyone who has done NaNoWriMo knows you don't have time to go back and read passages in the midst of the chaos. In fact, I NEVER read my second novel start to finish once I reached 50,000 words. I saved it and fell over in exhaustion. The poor thing didn't even have an ending because I got stumped right as I crossed the 50,000 word finish line.

But in my "Eureka" moment, I decided I had been too hard on my poor little stories. I could take them out, dust them off, and see if there was something there. Maybe with a little spit and polish, I'd find a couple of gems. You know what I found? They actually weren't that bad. Even with some awkward transitions, holey plot twists, and undeveloped characters there was a foundation there that I can work with and build on. What a relief! I CAN do this novel writing thing, and with more practice I even think I can do it well.