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Why You Should Never Throw Anything Out

At least when you're writing. You never know when you might find a use for it later. Case in point: Back in February I was working on this intense scene that went on and on and on and I was getting great information out and writing well...and realized I was doing an info dump and inflicting my research on unsuspecting readers. So I took all that work and put it in a new file.

Today I was writing and realized some of that clipped stuff might fit where I was today. Not all of it, you'll be glad to hear--I do realize not everyone finds Florida's history as fascinating as I do--but enough to move me substantially along in the scene I was writing.

So when you're writing, either save your old pages or start a new file. Someday you might be glad you don't have to go back and do it all over again.

Comments

Tory said…
Good advice. I'll keep that in mind. Love your blog. I'll post a link to it on my blog if that's alright with you.
Take care
Tory
10:01 AM
Darlene Marshall said…
Sure, feel free to link, and thanks for writing to let me know you read the blog!
10:12 AM
Rebel Fan said…
This is good advice! I saved a piece about a little boy's pocket knife that I wrote after reading the book Zoro's Field. It was just someting the book made me think about. A year later, I used some of it in a short story that got published in an the SC Writers Workshop Anthology. Save. Save. Save. Carol
2:35 PM
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