Sunday, February 22, 2009

Never Say Never

My daughter played the clarinet in middle school. She was actually quite good at it. But when high school came, she closed the clarinet case and said, you can throw this away, I'm never playing it again. And she was true to her word. She hasn't.

But the other day I got an email from her (she's now living in San Francisco). She asked me to send the clarinet to her. She didn't ask if I still had it. She knew I wouldn't have actually thrown it away.

Now, before you jump to conclusions, she isn't going to start practicing again. Actually, she's going to give it to a friend who wants to learn to play. She, meanwhile, is learning the banjo.

How does this relate to writing?

Never throw away old manuscripts. Even if you think they suck or fifty agents turned it down. You can throw away the physical copy (or keep one hard copy at most), but save a digital copy on CD or smart stick or hard drive. Some day, years from now, you may pull it up and re-read it. By that time it may not sound so bad. Or you may have learned so much in the writing process since then that you can see where you went wrong and what can be done to salvage it. Or you may see parts of it that are really good and could be salvaged for some other book you're working on or thinking of writing.

My daughter probably will never play the clarinet again. But because she learned, she knows how to read music, she knows how the notes should sound, she has rhythm. It most likely will be easier for her to learn other instruments.

As a writer, you learn as you take classes, you learn as you write, you develop, not a musician's ear, but a writer's ear. And with that new skill, you can go back and read previous writing and learn from it, as well.

25 comments:

  1. Throw away that baby I labored so long over? Never. :)

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  2. At least not until they reach the teenage years!

    Hi Angie.

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  3. Oh, you are so right. I always cringe when I see a writer say they got disgusted and deleted the damned thing. Nooo. Never delete.

    True, I have a lot of dreck on my hard drive. But they are all potential seeds.

    I'm jealous of your daughter, by the way. Always wanted to be able to play a musical instrument - the banjo in particular.
    ~jon

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  4. Cool post. I was like, what the ...? Where is Helen going with this, then BAM. Good point too. I have a ms from a decade ago before I had pub'd anything that I never sought publication on because I didn't think it was that well written. And it wasn't. But it IS a good idea for a book and with what I now know about good professional writing I may just dust it off one day and see if I can't make something of it.

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  5. I played the violin in elementary and high school orchestra and put it aside for the guitar, which I still play badly. I also have a children's book that I started some forty years ago that I'm now preparing for publication, so I totally agree about not tossing out old manuscripts.

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  6. Great advice, Helen. Some years ago -- just before the advent of Chick Lit -- my daughter started a book based loosely on her experiences with a group of women at a health club. It was funny, slightly naughty, and a great story.

    Later, when I heard about the Chick Lit, I asked her about her book and she said she'd lost interest after the first 150 pages and threw it away. YIKES. I just knew she could have gotten it published.

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  7. Spot on advice!
    I still have all of the short stories I wrote as a teenager and young adult - hundreds of them! They may have originally been written poorly and from the viewpoint of immaturity, but there could be a good idea in there somewhere.

    That's why it boggles me when writers moan they don't know what to write. Holy cow, I'll never be without ideas!!

    L. Diane Wolfe
    www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
    www.spunkonastick.net
    www.thecircleoffriends.net

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  8. That's what happened with Two Wrongs. It was the second book I wrote, got some rejectons, and I went on. Years later, I did some updating and editing from what I'd learned in the meantime, and submitted it. It became my first published book.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  9. Wonderful advice, Helen!! I just recently pulled out the first two short stories I ever wrote -- I've learned a lot since then, but I can see potential in both. I am so glad I kept them!

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  10. Jon, she's taking lessons. She started with one-on-one tutoring, then switched to a group class. I haven't gotten to hear her play yet, but I'm hoping she'll bring her banjo on the next trip home.

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  11. Marvin, I have no doubt that you will do just that. I expect to see that dusted off book on your blog page before too long.

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  12. Jean! That fabulous. A book that you started 40 years ago will soon be in print. I love it.

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  13. Aaakkk! Maryann. She threw it away? She would have been right on the top of the chick lit wave.

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  14. You made me smile, Diane. It's so fun when an author says she's never without ideas. I like that.

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  15. What a great story of success, Morgan. And one we can all learn from. That's also a good marketing hook.

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  16. Joyce, do you think you'll re-do them as short stories, expand them into books, combine them? So many possibilities!

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  17. I knew I was saving the old stuff for a reason and now I know what the reason is! Thanks.

    Jane Kennedy Sutton
    Author of The Ride
    http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/

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  18. Great analogy for relating it to old manuscripts!

    I'd put out one warning though about using "smart sticks" (flash drive, thumb drive, jump drive) to save your work. They aren't reliable for long-term storage. An external backup drive (like a Maxtor) is a safer bet.

    Flash drives are convenient for carrying files from place to place and computer to computer, but if you have high humidity, no air conditioning, or a dusty environment, their reliability can be seriously compromised. And if it has any manufacturing flaw or something happens to it, there is no way to recover any of your data.

    Personally, I wouldn't chance it with my writing. =)

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  19. That's true, Annette. Thank you. I use an external hard drive to back up. They're not all that expensive.

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  20. It's fun having an excuse for saving everything, isn't it Jane!

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  21. I used to use an external hard dirve. I still have it and it works. But I've started using Mozy for backups. You get 2GB for free, and for written works (not photos, obviously) 2GB is practically limitless.

    The advantage of Mozy over the external hard drive is that Mozy is also a service - it does the backups automatically. You don't have to remember to do a backup.

    If you leave your computer idle for 20 minutes, it will back it up. It will also backup per your scheduled backup time, and only the files you tell it to. I believe it works for Macs as well as PCs. Check it out, I think you'll like it.
    ~jon

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  22. Should have left a link. Sorry.
    http://mozy.com/
    I don't work for them. Honest. :)
    ~jon

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  23. Jon, do you trust Mozy (guess you do since you use them and recommend them)? I feel very unsure about letting some site have total access to my computer. I know you say they only backup the files you tell them to, but do you know for sure they don't snoop around?

    Sign me paranoid.

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  24. I'm slightly paranoid myself, so it took me some time to take the leap. But they have been around awhile, and presumably don't want to commit commercial suicide, so I set aside my reservations and gave it a shot. So far, no problems.

    The thing about backing up to an external hard drive is that they can and do get stolen, zapped my lightning, destroyed in a fire, etc. But it does take a leap of faith to send your data off into neverland.

    When you set it up it asks for what directories you want backed up. Can I guarantee that those are the only directories they access? I guess not. But I don't see it as anymore risky than using Google Desktop or TweetDeck.

    I save all my files as Rich Text Format, by the way. I have a PC laptop and a MiniMac. I was forced to work on the MiniMac for several months while between laptops, and now realize what a nightmare I created for myself by saving them in NeoOffice native format. To use one of those stories on the PC I have to open it on the Mac and resave it as RTF so that the PC can read it.

    So now I always use RTF. Sorry for being so wordy.
    ~jon

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  25. Not wordy at all, Jon. This is great information. Thank you so much!

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