This time last year, I talked about shelving old projects and letting dead projects lie. Now I’m resurrecting the topic… to turn it on its head. Because, unexpectedly, one thing I came away thinking is that maybe sometimes it’s a good idea to step back into bad old writing.
Burnt out from editing and not ready to start a new project, I decided to go back to an abandoned story. I knew that there were parts I liked and parts I didn’t. To put it simply, I took a duology, cut, hacked and stitched it together to make one Frankenstein MONSTER BOOK. Now, this isn’t a fairy tale (after all, we’re talking about some serious necromancy here!) I doubt me and the book will wind up happily ever after 😉 I may end up having rewritten it just to shelve it again.
However, what I am happy to say is I had fun with my little fling. Playing around with it reminded me why I wrote it in the first place and made me want to write more. I realised I could take time out to work on something just for me (just as long as it doesn’t devour all my time 😉 ).
Most surprisingly of all, it was a learning curve. Not only could I see the massive development in my writing, I realised I could still learn new tricks from old projects. I ended up thinking how much I could ransack from the project for future stories and where I could improve elsewhere. Sure, this may seem like graverobbing (cos it is a bit), but I also saw this as an opportunity to create a whole new life aka more stories! 😉
I’m not completely turning my back on my previous post. Not every story is meant to see the light of day buuut maybe it doesn’t have to be shut up in the dark either. So, I guess the message here is that you don’t write anything off…
What do you think about dusting off old projects and old ideas? Do you like to resurrect bits here and there? Or do you think you should let dead things lie? Let me know in the comments!
the orang-utan librarian 
I need to do the same thing. I started writing and got to 30k words and then set it aside. It’s been over a year since I’ve touched it. The plan was always to come back, but I still haven’t.
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Oh that’s great that you wrote so much! Ah that happens, but I’m sure you’ll get to it again, it just takes time
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Agreed!
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Sometimes it takes an old project to get that lightbulb to go off 🙂
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Absolutely! That’s such a great point!
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My feeling has always been, if you let it die, it was for a reason.
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hehe totally fair! I think it’s less about properly resuscitating it, but (as someone else has said) about getting the creative juices flowing again.
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😉
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I’m a fan of looking back at my old writing 😉 On one hand I get to see how far I’ve come since then, but sometimes I find some real gems like a paragraph here or a sentence there that I find really beautiful and I’m like “Dang! I wrote that?” So I’m all for resurrecting the old projects. Sometimes they just need to sit on the back burner for a bit!
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hehehe I totally hear you! 😉 Ah yeah I get you! Yeah absolutely 😀
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I like to do that as well! 🙂 It’s fun actually, just like visiting your old pictures and laughing about the way you looked back then 😀
I really like the way you use GIFs. It brings so much life to the article, like you can feel it 😀
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Absolutely agree with you!
Thank you so much!! 😀
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You are welcome!! 😀😀
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I’ve been thinking of going back to something i started writing a few years ago, but could never find the time to sit down and continue writing. With all that’s going on, I can probably find more time than usual to try again.
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Ah I get that. And that’s a good idea- I hope you get back to it! 😀
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I’ve looked back at old work I’ve done and it’s either gone one of two ways – pleasantly pleased that I really liked something I’d written and can see the potential or abject horror that I ever thought I could use words.
I think letting the dust sit on old projects is a good way to be because when you finally dust them off you can look at it with fresh eyes and determine whether there’s promise or whether you should bury it in the woods at midnight under the light of an old lamp.
It’s taken me a long time to let the ‘rest’ stage come though because I’m often impatient but I find it’s been better in the long run. Even the stuff that just needs to go I keep because it shows a journey.
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hahaha oh my goodness I completely relate!!
Absolutely!! hahahaha love how you put that!
Ah I do hear you there as well- sometimes it’s really hard to know when you’ve given enough of a rest (and when it’s too much). And yeah absolutely, even if it’s on the shelf, it’s not like I bin it, cos it can be good to look back on (and in a way I like looking at how much I’ve changed!)
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Some older projects can be a treasure trove of ideas that can be recycled into a new story. And sometimes, those old projects were put on the shelf and left alone for a reason. But it never hurts to look back and see what you can mine from those old stories! 😀 Maybe even do a whole revamping of the project, just to see how much can change over the years!
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Yeah that’s true! hehehe yes that’s true as well! Absolutely! For me, doing something like that can be a fun way to just do a bit of writing. And you’re right, it can be good to look back on the changes!
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I think old projects can hold gems here and there among all the other gritty chaotic bits, but I do remember some of my old projects being complete rubbish (though who knows, there could be something I could salvage from it). It’s wonderful that you can find so much from your old projects, all the best!
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Yeah I agree with you- on both fronts tbh (my old projects are very bad!) It’s just that one was fun to play around with… even if it does eventually end back on the shelf 😉
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I enjoy recycling old ideas and making them better. I don’t always touch any of the actual prior project material, but the ideas? Absolutely!
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Ah I completely get that! I like to mine old projects for ideas too!
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I’m working on doing the same thing with my blog! (Hi, old friend!) I am trying to figure out what excites me to blog about now and whether or not going back to my unfinished drafts (some from like 3 years ago) are worth revisiting. With some yes, with others no. But it’s useful to look back and revisit old projects just in case!
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Oh gosh hi! Welcome back! 😀 Ah I get what you mean! Coming back from a break can mean you’re rediscovering lots of old drafts- but there’s so much fun to be had in that to be fair! 😀
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This isn’t something I have ever done to be honest – once I’m done with something it is generally dead to me haha. Now, though, I kind of want to dive back into something old to see if there’s anything there worthwhile continuing…
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hahaha that’s good! Probably better than bringing something back to life… only to kill it again lol 😉
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I think now is an especially great time for revisiting older projects!! If it doesn’t seem like it’s working out, then you can always put it to rest for good because now there’s loads of time to figure all of that out, you know? :’)
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Yeah absolutely! I don’t know why, but I feel like with more time on my hands, it’s actually harder to get on with something new, so I feel like I may as well 😉
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sometimes i write things and they are so terrible I never want to read them again but also when i DO read them again i get so embarrassed that i rewrite them and I end up liking the results so…maybe it isn’t a bad thing to dig up a project that you’ve shoved to the back of your mind 🙂
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haha I do get that! I have the same reaction to my old work (like, what the hell was I thinking?) but then after a bit of revision, at least I don’t feel as bad about it 😉
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