How many stories have you given to the Land of Lost Books?

If you’ve ever scrapped your words, thrown your tales into
the trash, or hit that delete key over a large chunk of highlighted text, then
you’re guilty!

Stop! Don’t do that anymore!

What if when Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Princess and the Pea, he decided at some point in that story he’d make the princess shrink down to the size of that pea? I don’t know Mr. Andersen’s personal life. I don’t know if he drank. But let’s pretend he did… because it’s funny. Maybe he was throwing back shots of whiskey, or whatever they drank in Denmark in 1835 – probably wine or Schnapps.

Actually, it was during the Temperance movement so probably
not much at all.

But who the fuck cares? Let’s pretend he was rip roaring
drunk and was really into this story, the creative juices were flowing, and he
cranked out a few thousand words that were all about how this princess shrank
down to the size of a pea and then went on multiple adventures in this thumb-tack
size.

The next day, he went to read over his story and was fucking
shocked at what he found. It made no sense. Why would she go from sleeping on
an uncomfortable stack of beds with a pea beneath her to suddenly shrinking
down to the size of one? What was he thinking?

So, he crumpled his story up and tossed it into the trash
bin. Then he started over and wrote what we know now as The Princess and the
Pea.

Now, I just made all that shit up. Hans Christian Andersen
did write The Princess and the Pea and he also wrote Thumbelina.
See where I’m going with this?

What if those 3,000 words he threw into the garbage bin
could have been slapped down onto the table right next to that pea story and relabeled
as Thumbelina? It might have needed some tweaking and a fresh coat of paint,
but overall, he would have already been 3k words into his next story.

The point of this blog post, my friends, is to tell you to
STOP SCRAPPING YOUR WORDS!

No more hitting that delete key.

That’s like giving up on your darlings. You wrote those damn
words. Put them to use.

I’m working on Pride’s Envy right now, the third story in my
Razorblade Tumbleweeds MC series (a little shameless self-promotion here). I
write these stories in 3 points of view with the chapters labeled with the
character’s name whose point of view we’re in. So, I had this character named
Chelsea. If you’ve kept up with my series, that might excite you a little bit.

So, every third chapter was Chelsea’s. I must have written
at least five chapters on this chick. Then, at some point, I said, “This isn’t
working. She shouldn’t even be in this book.”

My first thought was, “Fuck these chapters. I’ve wasted my
time.”

But then I realized, just because they don’t make sense in
this book, they might absolutely have a place in the next. So, I did a
cut/paste for each of her chapters and put them in my upcoming book, Fury’s
Grace, where Chelsea will be that third character. Now, before I’ve even started
that book, I’m about 10k words into it. That’s fucking awesome!

A friend of mine, author Crimson Syn, recently told me she
does the same thing. She has written dramatic scenes, maybe a fight scene or an
argument between two characters, that didn’t flow right in a book. So, she kept
them on the side and used them in one of her other works in progress.

Another author friend of mine, Riley Edwards, who is on fire right now cranking out stories, used to scrap words all the time. About a year ago, I remember practically yelling at her, “Stop throwing your words away!” She deleted so many words! If she didn’t like something, she scrapped it. It set her back a few times when trying to hit deadlines. She ended up with stronger books, but I can’t help thinking how all those words might have made excellent sequels or may have fit in a totally different story. She writes so damn fast that it probably doesn’t matter, but still!

So, let’s think about how you can do this. Let’s say you’re
working on your current WIP (work in progress) and you find yourself doubting
something you’ve written. Now, I’ve already told you in a previous blog post to
stop re-reading over and over again. If you don’t write forward, you’ll never
get through this book and onto your next one. But let’s say this isn’t that
situation. You know something is wrong with what you’ve written.

Don’t be afraid. Oftentimes we clam up at this point and put
the book down. We say something like, “Oh my God. These words are shit! I’m not
a writer. I shouldn’t be an author.”

It might be a week or a month or a year or more before you
pick that book up and start writing again.

So, let’s use this method instead. If you absolutely know something
is wrong in this book. If a character isn’t playing nice with others and just doesn’t
fit in. If a scene seems out of place. If you’ve thought of a better beginning
or a more relevant ending to this book, don’t freak out.

Open a new word document. Call it whatever you want. Call it
something based on that scene or call it Next Document. Call it whatever the
fuck you want as long as it helps you do this quickly. Then copy/paste whatever
isn’t working from this book into that new document. Save it there. Delete it
from your current WIP and write only that part over.

Don’t worry about the new document. Use it to jot down ideas
for that book. So maybe that character will have a story of his/her own now. If
anything comes to mind that will work in that story, go to that document and type
up your notes.

So, no more giving your stories to the Land of Lost Books.
It’s a sad place full of forgotten tales from authors who’ve given up on them.

Whatever you do, stop fucking scrapping your words because
you wrote them. You put your blood, sweat, and tears into them. Keep them
around a little longer and give them the chance to breathe.

I’m a juggler of stories. This works for me. I hope it works for you. Thank you for reading.

P.S. if you want to check out that series I mentioned in this post, here’s a link to the free prequel (just a short book to introduce you to the characters and the 3 POV style I use). Click HERE to get Anger’s Fade.

Click HERE or go up top and click on the “Home” page to see all of my books listed from all three of my pen names.

Chris (author of 3 pen names)

CM Genovese (romantic suspense)

Chris Genovese (kinky romance)

Carver Pike (horror/dark fantasy)