Me as My Co-writer

Getting back into writing lately and it's been a wonderful break from marketing To the Top of Greenfield Street. I picked up a manuscript that I wrote over ten years ago-- the writing is absolutely awful, and I love it.

As I'm reading through, there are definitely some stupid mistakes, but many of them are easy to correct. More importantly, the plot moves along well and it takes me somewhere. Next thing I know, I'm flowing, and adding and changing the plot as I see fit.

The coolest part comes when I get stuck, because the old story is still there to unstick me. It has an idea ready, right away, maybe a bad one, but an immediate idea of where the plot should go, none the less. It's like I'm my own co-writer, bouncing ideas off my past self and deciding which way the line of action should turn. Disagreeing with an idea inspires just as much creativity as agreeing-- it all inspires more possibilities.

Like most writers, I'm sure, my harddrive contains stacks and stacks of docs that died. The novel graveyard. I'd be cruising along on an idea... and the next thing I know it dries up. I got stuck, like knee-deep in a creativity quicksand, I can't move forward, and abandon the project.

Well, here is hope! Keep writing. Put the ideas on paper. This motivational cliche gets said all the time within the writing community... but it's so true! Please keep writing, and always save your work. Don't ever totally give up on any of your ideas. Find that old manuscript from decades ago, back in high school or college, hell, elementary school if you can find it-- whenever inspiration struck. Odds are that the idea is total crap, but if you can start a conversation, get flowing, begin again, with your old ideas as your co-writer, and your new polished skills as a co-writer, you might just be surprised at what you two can come up with. Cheers.