I’m in the process of re-vamping my library/office in my house (aka digging it out and making it work like a real office ;)). During this long process, I’m really looking through what I’m keeping. This includes digging through boxes of notes that I’ve made on various books throughout the years.
It’s been eye opening that’s for sure!
I am a serious pantser, as Ray Bradbury would say I open the window and follow the character’s footprints in the snow. This leads to LOTS of brain storming and divergent paths at various stages in the writing process.
I’ve found notes and ideas that were not followed that would have radically changed where that particular book ended up. Sub plots that were modified or dropped, new ones that were added. I’d like to say that my characters stayed the same, but even they have changes as they morphed from earlier notes-through various brainstorms.
I don’t see these lost notes/ideas as wasted at all, clearly they helped me get to where I really needed/wanted the book to go. And some of them are so different they could be used for another book. But still, I almost feel sad for those lost books—the ones that were briefly alive, then lost in a pile of notes.
What about you? Ever find notes where you shot off in a different direction in the final draft? How do you feel about those paths not followed?
I really hope you get some good comments on this post. It makes me wish for a book where the novelist finds all these divergent notes, like you did, but then she does something about them and follows the different paths somehow...
ReplyDeleteThank you! I like that book idea too :)
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Marie- at work, can't log on
Recently, I was kind of doing the same thing, only it was more of trying to clean the garage and unpack some boxes that are still packed up since I moved in 2008. LOL I used to make notes and keep them in a binder so they would all be in one place. Some of the half stories I found there brought back some great memories. I was such a different person when those were written, I don't know that I could even go back and finish them today. They were so important then and so trivial now. Something I won't throw away, but definitely something I won't finish.
ReplyDeleteHmmm- that's true that those lost bits are from a different person. I'm glad you won't toss them out, but maybe they can be reconstructed into something new?
DeleteWe can rebuild them! (ok, maybe I'm losing my marbles ;))
Thanks for coming by and commenting!
Marie- at work, can't log on
Awhile back I discovered some transcripts of chats about a book I was working on. They were from early on in the writing process for that book. I was surprised by how inventive some of the ideas were and how I had completely discarded or forgotten them. The book ended up where I originally planned, but some of those forgotten notions would have improved the final product. Orphaned ideas are like parentless children waiting to be adopted. Hoping for someone to take them in and put them in a good book. just maybe not the book they were born to.
ReplyDeleteSharon
I love that last bit about orphaned ideas! It's true that maybe those great bits can go on to live a happy life in another project :).
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Marie- at work, can't log on
My pathes tend to change a lot (kind of like Hogwarts' stairways). Enjoy where they take you.
ReplyDeleteBTW - I nominated you for the Liebster Award. www.tonjadrecker.blogspot.com