Draft-Drawer

The Secret Graveyards: Pencils, Files & Draft Drawers

I believe writing is a form of madness. I do. I suffer from it, and I have since age 8. I dream, I record. I am a witch born of storytelling, accents, dialects and alphabets. I conjure worlds and destroy them as I see fit. In that roux of creativity, here I am.

Yet, here in that lingering immortality just before me….I get scared too.

I see the pages, blank and endless and sometimes I–I just can’t. Sometimes I can only get to a certain part in a story or a WIP and…I stop. But rather than through that energy away, I put a pen on it…and put it in my draft-drawer. I do this in the hope –THE HOPE–I will return to it. I do it in the hope that I will have the strength to complete something that I started. I do it to remind myself the story isn’t over–I just can’t see my way clear yet. But once I do? I will find my way back to it.

There is a drawer in my desk that is stocked with notebooks, pens and other random office supplies. Within the graveyard of writing supplies, are my incomplete thoughts. There are beginnings, full and bright. There the ends of dreams, the beginnings of nightmares, and the lusts of my own flesh. All in this drawer, waiting for me…calling to me in times where I would be, rather be writing.

They call when I say I can’t write.

They persist when I escape the diligence of writing to tweet or post to Instagram.

They haunt when I forget to add to them…or say I don’t need to add to them. Or the biggest writer lie: “I’ll get back to it.”

I have so many stories to tell, and one life to tell them in. Yet, I know I may not…

The Power Of The Hidden Gems

One of the coolest things about being a writer, the absolute best thing, is looking back through drafts. Revisiting work that you either forgot about (it happens!), left unfinished, or decided to abandon because the lure of another project. However, make the time to revisit the old work.

Why is this important? It shouldn’t be on the surface, but it should be something you as a writer do periodically. Reflection is a muscle to a writer, especially in matters of their own work! There does come a time when you must have a working detachment to your work. notice I did not say to become hyper critical about it, or towards it.

You must be able to view unfinished work, as that: unfinished. Not bad. Not unworthy. Not horrible. But unfinished. The work awaits you, and you for the work.

The work is always there!

In examining the work left undone, you have to see it as both done–and undone. You may yet fall in love with it again. Research, time and experience sometimes congeal to grant the fuel a writer to complete what is left–of their own work. You would even be surprise at how flipping a character’s POV, gender, or revamping a subplot into the main plot could work wonders!

Here are your hidden jewels, dear ones. Go find them!

Get to work.

The Joy Of Self-Recycling.

There is this concept of a draft-drawer on my podcast, The Writers’ Block. But the concept in its entirety is not my own. I heard the marvelous Anne Rice mention that she doesn’t throw any work away–she puts it in a drawer.

Genius!

Anne Rice says that she does this because she wants to be able to go back and revisit a work, and have something to draw from. I agree. As a writer, you need to have, to develop enough faith in your work that you value even the things you do not complete!

Enter–the Draft-Drawer.

The things you have stored away, hidden away or you find yourself second guessing? Don’t toss them away: save them. Why you may ask? Not everything that is incomplete is impossible. Not every project, every poem, every novel is created, finished in a linear fashion! Some things we start need to sit with us a while longer. The POV redone, more research added. But nothing should be tossed away because the process to create it is hard.

What is in your draft-drawer? What things have you kept? What things do you need to revisit? Why have you not revisited them?

The draft-drawer is a form of self-recycling. Your imagination is both the source and end of all things in this capacity. You control the pace and flow of the work! With you saving the work, this work undone or unpolished, you grant yourself the freedom to start again; creation is at your demand. Do not sell yourself so short as to throw something away.

The Three R’s found in Ecology are apt with writers as well, albeit with a twist:

Rethink. Reuse. Recycle.

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Use What You Have On Hand

The free writes, the stray and floating ideas–what do you have on hand?

On Season 1 of The Writers’ Block Podcast, I talked about the this concept. I talked about how we, as writers, don’t truly know the wealth that we have! In understanding that wealth you have, you created, you may have to create something that I call, the draft-drawer.

The draft-drawer is a place where you put all the work you haven’t gotten to yet, aren’t sure where to go next, or things you got stuck on. This could even be snippets of plots, titles, or even snippets of conversation you jot! Your draft-drawer is a both a well and wealth of information!

With the new year, new decade at slow hum, don’t think that you need to recreate the wheel! That can be stressful for a writer, trust me. But you need to know is the new, potent, powerful work may just be hidden in a file. It may be incomplete. It may be in the transition from the thoughts in your head to the words and worlds on the page.

The work is there. The work has always been there. It’s your job to either find it, complete it, or find more of it.

Be brave. The world is waiting.