The Unused Folder

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

I recently tallied up all my unused stories/chapters — pieces where I simply wasn't feeling it, bits that were supposed to follow other bits that I never ended up writing, etc.

The total: 33,000 words, give or take.

Obviously, this is only a fraction of the shit I write that never gets finished. However, for some reason, I decided to hold onto those 33,000 words instead of binning them. I can safely say none of it's gold, but it has me wondering about the psychology behind it.

What do you keep hidden in a folder called something like "deleted scenes," "one day," "someday," or "never/nope?" Why do you save some scraps while discarding others? Do you think you’ll eventually use everything you set aside, or does keeping them serve another purpose?

 

[filthytrancendence]

I don't generally save scenes I scrap because there's usually a good reason for them to be scrapped.

But I've got lots of started stories that are just sitting in the vault.

Lately I've been alternating between writing something from scratch and then picking up some started or half-finished story in my vault and finishing it to publish. That's a lot of why my output has been something close to prodigious of late.

My most recent project is somewhere in the middle. I had one idea, it kinda overlapped with a different project I started, then I decided to turn the idea into a prequel for the started project, using the characters and backgrounds but none of the actual story I had started.

So obviously I think there's a lot of value in reviewing your half-finished stuff. Sometimes just setting a project down is the right answer, but picking it back up again at some point is just as important.

 

[NotWise]

I don't keep deleted scenes. The effort needed to work a scene into a different context would probably be larger than the effort to reconstruct the scene.

I have a number of story synopses that I'm saving for later and one in-progress story I want to complete. I have another in-progress story that I'd love to finish some day, but that would be a struggle. There aren't a lot of them, and they're in the same folder with my completed stories.

I occasionally review the mass I have built up and delete synopses that aren't good enough. I deleted an in-progress story once, and I may never do that again.

 

[crookedletter]

For some of my more worked-over stories I keep a "graveyard" doc, and if I remove something I'll throw it in there in case I want to change my mind later. It's less "kill your darlings" and more "sideline your darlings and pretend you'll reconsider them even though you probably won't."

I learned that practice the hard way, when I rethought a story and then rethought it again, and I went looking in vain for a scene I'd scrapped. But in general practice those docs are aptly named -- their contents are dead, never to be resurrected.

In terms of the psychology behind it I'm sure that points to something fundamental. I don't do anything I can't undo later if I so choose. Even if I feel pretty sure about my decision. Unfortunately life in general doesn't allow for that approach, usually.

 

[MrPixel]

I keep many but not most deleted scenes. These are the ones that have merit, but not in the context of the original writing, mostly tangents or distractions. I have one on my mind right now, "Oh, that's good, but where do I use it?" because it helps complete a character, but would be a downer in most of the light-hearted story lines I prefer.

 

[StillStunned]

I don't keep deleted scenes in a separate folder, but if I rewrite a draft I'll give it a new number and stick the abandoned version in a folder called "Dead Ends and False Starts".

 

[Erozetta]

I have a vast graveyard of "removed from..." Documents.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I don't keep deleted scenes in a separate folder, but if I rewrite a draft I'll give it a new number and stick the abandoned version in a folder called "Dead Ends and False Starts".

Mine is called Defunctland

 

[StillStunned]

I have a vast graveyard of "removed from..." Documents.

That's not a graveyard, it's an abattoir.

Or a junkyard, for anyone with a lower squick tolerance.

 

[Erozetta]

That's not a graveyard, it's an abattoir.

Or a junkyard, for anyone with a lower squick tolerance.

True, I have repurposed some into other stories, just needed some seasoning and the right amount of heat.

It's a graveyard before a junkyard, though. Them cuts be meaty.

 

[filthytrancendence]

Mine is called Defunctland

Is that a reference to Defunctland?

 

[StillStunned]

True, I have repurposed some into other stories, just needed some seasoning and the right amount of heat.

It's a graveyard before a junkyard, though. Them cuts be meaty.

"Victor Frankenstein's freezer".

 

[AwkwardMD]

Is that a reference to Defunctland?

Yes it is

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

I feel like keeping old stuff is for that one moment, years from now, when you look back on it and say, “oh interesting, I did think of that at that time.”

 

[NC_Coastal]

I have 17 drafts and one story sent back. It's part junkyard and part stories that ran off the rails. A lot of mine do that anyway.