Draft Deleting? Don't Do It!
Why it's important not to discard
Today, I had a little time. I decided that I would have a look at the drafts that I have on Vocal. This is part of a long-term wish to have everything I've written on paper rather than virtually. I've not looked at them for weeks and something drew me to them, just to browse and see what was there.
10 pages. Some were ideas. Some were just pictures I'd saved from Unsplash which were distinct. I could see why I had saved them as looking at them again, I felt my brain setting into motion a storytelling idea. I moved on. Some were indices, incomplete, like all the stories that I wrote in 2024 - the index stops at the beginning of March, January and February listed with links. Would have been a great idea. Best laid plans and all that.
I was a little shocked by how many drafts there were. I thought I was quite methodical and tidy. I decided to read one or two. One called "The Odd Fellows" was a description of three different male characters at a traffic crossing. They sprang back in to my mind like a prophetic vision. I remembered being in the car and seeing this disparate group and thinking, "I wonder who they are and how they met" and so, I recorded it. That was all I'd done - a brief description of the men and how they looked and dressed. However, the germ of a story is there and I hope to return to it at some point.
I found a story called "Anchor" that I'd started for an unofficial challenge set by Randy Baker. I have no idea what the premise was for it. Take a word from a list maybe and make something from it? Who knows? But whatever the stimulus, I had decided to craft something.
I've not read this story for months, maybe even over a year. It's incomplete. I'm not going to go into the detail of it here because my hope is to finish it and publish it.
And I suppose that that is my point in writing this. I've written before about the guilt that I feel in leaving my stories to languish because I start them and sometimes, don't get to complete them. They are in a state of stasis, a collection of good intentions, left, uncared for. Honestly, I feel an immeasurable amount of guilt about them being neglected. Strange, isn't it? I suppose they are my creations and I have been invested in them but just couldn't complete them for whatever reason.
Reading "Anchor", I was transported once again into that writing headspace. I remembered my intention on writing it. I could visualise in my head once again what I'd been trying to convey when I'd originally started writing it. I could see the characters from the dialogue. I liked what I'd done. I did some tweaks while I was reading, made some edits, removed some words, made it flow, changed punctuation.
It was like revisiting an old friend. What was refreshing about it though was that with the time away from it, I was able to read it with fresh eyes. I had distance from it and the tweaks that I made, which I think make it flow better now, would not have been done at the time of writing. Letting it sit means that when I publish it, because of the amendments I've made after time away from it, it will be a better piece.
I'm itching to return to it now. Unfortunately, I don't have the time. It is my mantra, it seems. But I will complete it. Not today. But I will.
And what I've discovered is that it might actually be a better story as a result. It won't have matured like a fine malt; it will have sat, waiting but in the space between it and me, my ideas will have grown and I will be able to come back and hone it into something better than it was when I left it. I certainly felt today that I improved it, shaped it into something more in the brief time that I was with it. I whittled away at it and gradually, like a Venus from stone, something beautiful emerged which was all my very own. Pretentious? Maybe a little.
So my message is this: don't throw your drafts. Keep them. Revisit them. Maintain copies of them. They may not be perfect currently but they could in time turn into something marvellous.
I'm off on holiday tomorrow so "Anchor" will have to wait (weight?) but I will take my notebook with me and with some mulling time, I will think about where I can take the story and perhaps more importantly, where I can be taken by the story.
And then, where you, dear reader, can be taken by it too.
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Comments (12)
My problem isn't with drafts; I have very few, but with looking at published titles and remembering what the story was about. It normally takes one or two lines for me to recall the whole story, but it is frustrating. Getting old sucks.
I like that description of ‘a collection of good intentions’ for drafts sitting in wait. It’s crazy to me how they multiply. The last time I went through them, one hadn’t been touched in 2 years. And yes, im guilty of deleting a few but those were all poems that didn’t make it past one or two lines. I was surprised to find 2 completed fiction stories I never submitted to challenges. I guess they’re not completed since I didn’t feel they were good enough to submit, haha. Thank you for sharing this, Rachel. I think I’ll take a stroll through them today. Happy Holiday!
While it is good to keep the drafts, it was a reason that Vocal gave me for stopping publishing even though I didn;t have many . Good advice
sometimes i feel like all i do is think and draft, think and draft. "when does all the writing happen in writing??" the pieces need to marinate in our brains, and sometimes, maybe when you think you'll never finish, it comes. good advice, rachel. i am guilty of deleting drafts on vocal (and writing in general), but only ones i truly felt "lost the plot" and needed to be started over anyway. "kill your darlings" and all that. thanks for sharing :)
I look forward to reading the completed story. An anchor is a visceral object, hard and as you said tongue in cheek “weighty,” but also a powerful metaphor. I hope you have great and refreshing time away, Rachel!
Sound advice. I also recommend coming back to drafts once considered finished and giving them another look.
Well-wrought! I think again of Mr. Miyagi and his bonsai trees. Sometimes the tale is stopping us because the direction we want to take it isn't quite right, and it needs more room to grow in that subconscious place whence it comes. I have one on here, which is rather long and doesn't get a lot of reads, called "The Hearth". It started in 2015 as a story about a severely asexual man wondering if he could be aroused enough to donate sperm. I intended on playing for laughs, but the story just wouldn't let me take it there, and what it turned into, I think, is far better, though certainly a departure for me, being rather a story about hope than tragedy. "Anchor" away!
It seems we all share the "writer's guilt." It's kind of like "Mom guilt" isn't it? I am participating in a quantity writing contest this month that a friend of mine sponsors every February. It reminds me of all the stories I've started the past four February's as part of his contest. Since it's about quantity a lot of them ramble and her lost in the weeds so at some point I need to return to my little creations and guide them back in shape. Hope you have fun on holiday! I look forward to reading Anchor one day!
Sage advice!
My dear Rachel, I have 42 pages which I am going through, repurposing and whittling as I go. I too, never realized how many i had. Maybe that's why my cache is slow when i need to do stuff, like comment and such. Everything comes in slowly to my feed, putting me back and backed up with replying. You have company. Great read.
Great advice, Rachel. I know the feeling of guilt about unfinished stories: they are all your babies and you want all of them to be perfect. I try to keep my drafts to one page (10) and chip away at them when I have time. Have a great vacation, my friend!
I too have these, they do come in useful, very helpful if i may say. I completely agree. enjoy the holiday.