Do you do this?

black ink · May 25, 2007

I have several pages of writing that don't belong anywhere in my story. It's a compilation of false starts and dead ends that I can't bear to delete in case I want to use them (the wording or the ideas) later on. I'm kind of irritated by them (they skew my word count, for one

) but I'm paranoid that if I ditch them, I'll regret it later. What do you do with your wayward words?

scarletpeaches · May 25, 2007

Paste them into another word.doc and save it as my 'Darlings Graveyard'.

jhtatroe · May 25, 2007

I have a file called "False Starts." You never know when they might come in handy.

jdparadise · May 25, 2007

Hard drive space is so cheap as to be almost free.

For each chapter I'm working on, I have three files:

Chapter X - brainstorming
Chapter X - outtakes
Chapter X

davids · May 25, 2007

scarletpeaches said:
Paste them into another word.doc and save it as my 'Darlings Graveyard'.

A great idea-why would anyone do anything other than that-unless of course you are short of something!!!!

scarletpeaches · May 25, 2007

Ah davids, my one and only lobster chum.

How sweet thou art, with thy crustacean shell, and dare I say it, a passionate heart 'neath those meaty chunks of goodness?

black ink · May 25, 2007

Such great and simple solutions! Thank you

CaroGirl · May 25, 2007

I put stuff like that in a file called "Miscellaneous" in the same folder as my WIP, along with files called: "Query Letter1", "Query Letter2", "Query Letter3" (you get the idea), "Title Ideas", "Synopsis" (attempts 1, 2 & 3). Who knows, maybe some of those scenes will end up in a short story or another novel someday.

kristie911 · May 25, 2007

I always have some really great phrases, paragraphs or just words that I would love to be able to use but invariably they don't fit in my story. So, I do have a file to save them in...you never know when you might want them for something else!

Varthikes · May 25, 2007

I put things like that either at the end of the story beyond the point I'm working on or put them all in a document designated 'scrap'.

AndreaGS · May 25, 2007

I just let them float around on my hard drive. If I want I can go back and read them and think "Oh, that would have been lovely in my story". And, who knows? Maybe something similar will work in another piece of writing.

Southern_girl29 · May 25, 2007

In my current novel, I had a ton of info dumps that needed to be in there, just not all at once. I created a file called it quotes and filled it with the dialogue I had to cut. When I need something from the file, I went back to it, but you know, I found I didn't really need as much of it as I thought I did. I still have about seven pages in that file. I don't plan on deleting it though.

sunna · May 25, 2007

I have a Bits & Pieces file for every WIP; some get used, or rehashed and used, and others just sit and sulk at me.

Linda Adams · May 25, 2007

I make lots of backups to my second hard drive--daily if I'm doing extensive work on the project, and then at the end of the month, it all goes on a CD. So if I don't need a file any more because it no longer applies, it'll be on one of the backup disks, and I delete it from the hard drive. I've never had to go back after anything though.

AJ Clare · May 25, 2007

I file them. None of them are wasted, I find. Even if I never fit them in anywhere they're still part of the process of character development.

Julie Worth · May 25, 2007

black ink said:
I have several pages of writing that don't belong anywhere in my story. It's a compilation of false starts and dead ends that I can't bear to delete in case I want to use them (the wording or the ideas) later on. I'm kind of irritated by them (they skew my word count, for one) but I'm paranoid that if I ditch them, I'll regret it later. What do you do with your wayward words?

I delete without worrying about it, and every once in a while I save my WIP to a new folder. Under each book folder, I eventually have dozens of consecutively numbered folders. If I decide I want something I deleted, I just have to go back far enough to find it. Not that I do, but it serves a psychological role, so I don't feel I'm deleting anything permanently. (And finding those old words is a snap once you have Google desktop installed.)

LeslieB · May 25, 2007

Perhaps you could try this method...

http://scott-lynch.livejournal.com/187661.html

Stijn Hommes · May 25, 2007

Save it. It may not fit in this project, but you'd kick yourself if you know you forgot one of the things your character said now would be a great quote in another story.

Death Wizard · May 25, 2007

I leave them in until the second draft. Sometimes a false start really is good writing just lacking the proper transition.

Dancre · May 25, 2007

scarletpeaches said:
Paste them into another word.doc and save it as my 'Darlings Graveyard'.

I have one of those. Comes in handy.

kim

Tia Nevitt · May 25, 2007

I just put them in other Word docs within the same directory. I give it a meaningful name so I can find it again if necessary. Once I cut a scene, it usually doesn't make it back in the book. However, it is fun to go back and do word counts to see exactly how much I cut.

I have already cut about 28,000 words from my last novel and am contemplating a major rewrite, where I would cut about 50,000 more words.

Cassidy · May 25, 2007

i find saving them in another file (darlings' graveyard is nice, btw) makes cutting them out less painful. i rarely end up using them, but at least i know i can bring them back from the dead if i change my mind.

Pagey's_Girl · May 26, 2007

I took eight or ten little scenelets I'd written that I couldn't work into anything longer, tied them together with some faux interview dialogue and viola!, a cute little short piece spoofing one of those VH1 "Behind The Music" kind of specials.

ETA: It helps of your MC is a former musician if you're going to do that, though.

EETA - IF, not of. Sheesh...

freshpencils · May 26, 2007

I do it all the time. I save them in a "Cuts" folder.

Course if I ever want them again, they'd be almost impossible to find as the folder is not organized in any way. The cuts are saved with a date and the name of the work they were cut from.

Still, if I'm willing to look through them all, I'll eventually find what I'm looking for.

Anne Lyle · May 26, 2007

Me too. I use Scrivener, and in my Research folder I have a sub-folder called 'Cutting Room Floor' where I dump unneeded scenes, etc. This has turned out to be vital, since during the current revision process I realised my seemingly superfluous opening scene is actually more crucial to the plot than I thought, and will need resurrecting. Quick drag'n'drop, and I'm done

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