by Ruth Harris
OK, admit it. You’re one of them.
You’ve walked the walk of shame.
You threw up your hands, flew the white flag of surrender, and gave up.
That book, the one you started with such high hopes, is dead. It bit the dust mumble-mumble years (decades?) ago.
Now it’s a ghost, a goblin, draped with cobwebs lurking in a spooky cemetery somewhere in the haunted recesses of your hard dive.
Maybe it was gonna be a debut launch that would turn the hottest agents and most powerful editors of Big Six into whimpering beggars, competing for a crumb of your attention.
Or maybe it was intended to be that fabulous breakthrough novel. Ya know. A Reese Witherspoon selection, followed by foreign rights, movie rights, a zillion-dollar streaming deal.
Or a try at a new genre about which, as it turned out, you were clueless, but didn’t know it. Yet.
Whatever we call it, whatever the circumstances, we all have them.
- The trashed.
- The abandoned.
- The discarded.
- The dissed and disrespected.
- The bad breakups that ended with a restraining order.
- The “friendly” breakups that ended when you decided it wasn’t you. It was them.
Even though you can only be a virgin once (supposedly) — cuz there are enterprising plastic surgeons who allege they can fix even that (for a fee) — all of us have manuscripts that have gone way past rigor mortis. They’re dead — but, because cyber is forever — not buried.
Here be dragons.
They’re the unread, unloved and unwanted (even by the author).
- Your crit group runs and hides.
- Beta readers howl.
- Agents shriek and flee.
- Publishers mutter curses.
These manuscripts, some written in an ancient heiroglyph called WordStar for which no Rosetta Stone has yet been found, languish in a shadowy zone between the undead, the half dead, and hospice care.
The almost-published.
Others have been Almost Published (in hard cover! Gonna be huge! A definite bestseller!). The would-be agent/editor/publisher loved it, but when the marketing department/buyer/distributor read the manuscript, someone, somewhere did not agree.
- “Not commercial.”
- “Not for the mass market.”
- “Needs a plot.”
- “Too complicated.”
- “The chains won’t go for it.”
- “Not enough action.”
- “Too literary.”
- “Too violent.”
- “Too much sex.”
- “Not enough sex.”
Whatever the “reason,” the deal — that big, huge, life-changing deal didn’t happen.
Some of them were even published.
Looking back, even we wonder, how?
Not even morbid curiosity will impel us to open the one tattered, yellowed remaining paperback. That’s how traumatized we are by the prospect of rereading an early effort, that somehow got published way back when some long-ago now-bankrupt publisher offered a contract, and our delusional selves accepted it, thinking we were hot sh*t.
Which we definitely weren’t.
Trick or tweet.
Those long-neglected never-finished manuscripts are haunting your hard drive — are they the culprit behind those weird glitches and inconvenient crashes?
Do they inhabit your dreams (or nightmares)?
Isn’t Halloween the perfect time to go through the dark portal and open that scary crypt?
Carefully. Don’t forget we’re in trick or treat season.
A blind date from the crypt.
Approach those long-neglected files as you would a blind date. Expect the worst. Lower your expectations. Definitely don’t shop for a ring.
Start with coffee. In a safe, public place.
Or maybe a glass of wine to steady your nerves as you open that file and start to read.
If it’s your early work, maybe it is just as scary as you fear.
But maybe it isn’t.
In fact, the reality is it might not be that terrible. Not at all.
- Maybe it’s not even half-bad.
- Maybe it just needs a fresh eye.
- An editor.
- A plot.
- Fewer characters.
- More relatable characters.
- Serious pruning of info dumps.
- New life for DOA scenes and chapters.
After all, you were an inexperienced writer way back then. You were full of hope and energy but the fact was you didn’t know wtf you were doing much less how to do it.
You’ve lived.
You’ve written.
And you’ve learned.
Embrace your inner Frankenstein.
Salvage, recycle and resurrect
Some of those beginner’s efforts might need to be memorialized with a respectful burial and a dignified headstone. But even those early misfires often contain an original turn of phrase, an intriguing character, or an ingenious plot twist.
There’s gold in them thar hills and some of these “beginner’s boo boos” are worth keeping.
Cut anything with promise however fractured and put it into a special folder to refer to later when you’re stuck for a word, a phrase, an idea or when desperate times call for desperate solutions.
You might even consider calling that file “Desperation” cuz ya never know.
There are other kinds of abandoned attempts that, when considered from the perspective of years or decades later, turn out to be ripe for resurection.
There are various pitfalls — and numerous possibilities.
Where’s the plot?
You have a wannabe book in search of a plot because stuff is supposed to happen in a logical sequence, escalate, resolve, and, finally, add up to a compelling story.
Except that way back when you were a beginner, you didn’t know the difference between an actual plot and pumpkin spice latte.
Now might be the time to write a synopsis or create a reverse outline.
Breaking your story down in a structured, concise way will expose strengths and weaknesses. Once you have the bones assembled into a skeleton (this is Halloween!) you are ready to revise and refine.
Here’s an excellent breakdown of plot, what happens, and what goes where.
Even if your plot is pretty good but still not up to pro standards, here’s my take on how to pave over pot holes and plot holes.
Aliens? Protoplasm?
Perhaps that beginner’s attempt at a book lost its way on the search for actual characters. Ones that feel real and that readers (including you) will care about.
But there are — shall we say? — Issues.
- Can’t tell the difference between your heroine and a slice of pumpkin cheesecake?
- Is that the protag or is it unevolved protoplasm searching for life?
- Is that villain wannabe as ominous as a slice of dried-out turkey without gravy?
- Even worse, you can’t tell Steve from Stephanie, Eddie from Edwina.
- Who are they? What were you thinking? Even you can’t remember.
Well, time has passed.
You now understand character and arc, and you know how to write a great one.
Introduce yourself to those poor, listless characters. They are in need of help. Embrace your inner shrink and analyze them. ID their goals, motivations, shortcomings and successes.
Know them, love them (even the villains), go to work on them, and set them free to go to work for you and your story.
Don’t be surprised if Steve or Stephanie, Eddie or Edwina turns out be Mr. or Ms. Right.
If your ms. is suffering from overpopulation, Anne offers solutions.
Dreaded info dumps.
You’ve committed one of a beginning writer’s most common pitfalls, but over the years, you’ve learned how to braid sub plots into your story without stopping it in its tracks.
- You use dialogue and snippets of narrative to establish back story.
- You know how supporting characters can be used to hint at (or reveal) secrets.
- You turn to settings, weather and props to convey mood and theme.
- You wield simile and metaphor to deepen character and enhance motives.
- You employ alternative POVs to twist the plot and crank up the stakes.
You’ve become a pro and you know now what you didn’t know then.
You know the tricks, you know how to use them, and perhaps employing a few will turn the forgotten and abandoned into your next bestseller.
Fight the flab.
- Did your inexperience and insecurity cause you to overwrite and overexplain?
- Was your prose a neon shade of purple?
- Did you subject the reader to dense, impenetrable thickets of verbal underbrush?
- Were you guilty as charged in criminal abuse of adverbs?
- Were adjectives sprayed all over the page like graffiti gone wild?
Now you’ve learned that less can be more and is often exactly enough.
Debbie Burke’s A+ post on how to write tight will point the way.
I’m a fan of the Yankees — and the delete button. Here are the nitty-gritty details about what you can learn from the bestselling masters of the minimal.
Send in the sizzle.
What if that old, abandoned manuscript isn’t that bad? Plot’s good, characters work, setting does the job. But.
- What if it’s meandering and unfocused?
- A yawn inducer?
- A room emptier?
- As inspiring as laundry?
- To put it bluntly, what if it’s b.o.r.i.n.g?
Wait! Don’t despair and give up. Help is on the way.
Is every scene and every chapter pulling its weight?
Have you titled your chapters to intrigue readers?
Does the first and last line of each scene and chapter compel the reader to turn the page?
Sometimes a detail like a chapter title, a provocative first line, and a grabby cliffhanger last line can turn meh into “I couldn’t put it down.”
Tales from the crypt.
As you tip toe through the crypt, don’t forget: Frankenstein was a beginner, too.
Boo!
And have a Happy Halloween!
BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Big Six-Oh by Ruth Harris
“Loved it! One ex-cop who doesn’t want help solving a murder. One current wife whose help he needs to catch the killer. One couple meant for each other who fall in love all over again after decades of marriage. Funny, exciting and very romantic.” —Reader Review
Blake Weston, is a smart, savvy, no BS former fashion editor. Her handsome, sexy husband, Ralph Marino, is a très James Bond ex-cop and head of security for an international media company.
When Blake buys a faux Chanel bag from a sidewalk vendor, the danger starts—but doesn’t end—with a scary mugging in broad daylight. From there, it escalates to face-to-face encounters with a gun-toting jailbird, a lovelorn Afghan war lord, and a celeb chef in a red balconette bra.
Meanwhile, Ralph is about to hit the Big Six Oh! and he’s not happy about it. Not that Blake is exactly thrilled. Especially now that she suspects Ralph might be cheating on her. Again.
Right when Blake and Ralph are forced to work together by his über-neurotic boss to bring down a deadly global counterfeiting ring—and save Ralph’s job.
“Funny and charming and a delight to read!
Really yummy. It is a rare author who can bring to the page such vivid and believable characters with so much sly wit and style.” —Reader Review
“Perfect for those of us not looking for bubble gum chick lit.
The relationship between savvy Blake Weston and her ex-cop husband Ralph Marino is realistic and down to earth. And yet the extraordinary circumstances they find themselves in kept me flipping the pages well past my allotted reading time. If you’re looking for a wonderfully fast-paced read that will take your mind off whatever you’re stressing about, Harris’s The Big Six-Oh! will fit the bill.” —Reader Review
Find the Big Six-Oh at these retailers
—
Superb, Ruth!
Thanks, James. Appreciated!
& Happy Halloween!
Well done, Ruth. My first novel-length manuscript is definitely in the “memorialized with a respectful burial and a dignified headstone” category, but I may have a couple later mss that could be revivable.
Thanks, CS. RIP to your first, but definitely check out the following mss. Who knows what treasures might lurk within. 😉
Good luck & Happy Halloween!
Thanks for an uplifting post, Ruth.
Ah: Halloween — the time for nightmares. Mary Shelley harnessed a scary dream to create Frankenstein, and published the book when she was only twenty-one. It didn’t impress many reviewers and readers, but it’s still here, and we all know who Frankenstein is.
Somebody who reads this has a Frankenstein buried somewhere.
Kathy, thanks! I’m with you. 🙂
There are definitely revivable mss out there lurking in the spooky corners of our hard drives.
Boo back, Ruth. That goes for you, too, Anne. Happy Halloween, ladies! Interesting topic which makes me think of a rotten corpse in my saved docs. crypt. It’s more like a Mr. Hyde than a Frankenstein, but it’s a short story I submitted to a CBC Books (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) contest a few years ago. “I’m sure to at least place with this beaut,” I confidently said as I hit the send-attached button.
When the winner and placer list was announced, I wasn’t even an honorable mention. I was disappointed, as I gave it my best shot, and was downright P’d Off when I read the winning story. It was – get this – some woman’s fantasy about having interracial oral sex on a public transit bus. It was positively terrible writing, even by my standards. And she won 5 Grand plus a 2-week, all-expense paid residency at the prestigious Banff School of Fine Arts!
Mumble, grumble. I’m gonna pry open the crypt and resubmit it for next year’s contest with a retitle of How To Immediately Get Arrested on a Train.
Garry—Eeek!
Definitely resubmit. Maybe up the stakes and go anal? lol
Good luck in the crypt and make sure we know where you are. I mean, you know, Just In Case.
After almost 30 years as a writer, I have a trail of discarded manuscripts on the hard drive. One was dropped by the publisher just before the contract, others flopped once they were published, and others again, I gave up on. I have one that I keep going back too. I know it’s a good story, i just don’t seem to be able to dig it out. Ah, well. At least the ‘lost’ manuscrips are now so many, I’m not bothered anymore 😀
Natalie—Sounds like you’ve developed the requisite writers’ rhino hide. Only took 30 years so you were quicker than some. lol
Possible that one more try might unearth the good story that you know is there? I hope so!
Good luck & Happy Halloween!
Thank you. I never give up. You do need that rhino hide, and so much patience. And sometimes, the book that didn’t work, finds a place at another time. Sometimes it just needs to find that one person in the industry that loves it 😀 Happy Halloween!
I gave up on one for years. Revisited almost thirty years later and decided the idea and characters were good but it needed a total rewrite. It became my first published book. So I’m all for rewriting if necessary!
Alex—Congratulations! And thanks for the encouragement. A good story is a good story. Sometimes, though, it takes a lot of time and experience to figure out how to tell it well.
Keep on keeping on is good advice—especially for writers.
Happy Halloween!
Superb advice, Ruth. I have four complete Frankensteins trunked and one novel that I gave up on halfway through (written in Google docs). That one still haunts me. The premise works, characters are all right, too, but the execution? Yikes. Cringeworthy.
Thanks, Sue. Only four? lol
And about the one that haunts you? Isn’t Halloween the perfect time to prove to that monster/spook/goblin just who’s the boss?
Ah yes. I have a cemetery full of those and I can’t see the graves for the tombstones. I will admit a couple of them do whisper from the great beyond from time to time. Maybe I’ll dig those up one day just to get them to shut up.
Thanks for the reminder that some stories deserve the final rights and others may deserve a chance at a second life.
Brenda—Thank *you*!
Getting them to shut up sounds like a good idea. Show ’em who’s boss!
Wow a keeper. And I’m rewriting the first novel these past months. Fingers crossed. Boo!!
Beth—Boo! and Eeek!
Good luck with your rewrite! As we all know, rewriting/revising comes with the territory. Sometimes it’s scary. Other times it’s actually fun. However it turns out, it’s basically just part of the job!
Happy Halloween!
Thanks Ruth, that was a hoot. I have more of the scraps and notes categories than anything approaching a draft. But even so, when I take the time to page through a loose leaf folder and flip the yellowed, handwritten pages, little thing jump out at me. Unless I’m careful, they start to multiply…
Thanks, Will.
They multiply? Aaargh. *That* sounds really scary! 😉
Happy Halloween, Ruth, and thanks for this wonderful, entertaining advice.
I don’t have any manuscripts that I’ve abandoned, but I have virtual trunks full of chapters I’ve decided just didn’t work. I hope I can pull some of those monsters out in the future and find a place for them.
Kay—Thanks for the kind words. Glad to learn you were entertained!
Good luck finding a place for those monsters (chapters). Maybe a few of them can even be put together as a novella or even a book. Have confidence in your creativity…it’s powerful!
Perfect Post!
Amber—”Perfect?” Wow! Thanks! 😉
Boo! Eeek! And Happy Halloween!
Such a fun post, Ruth! You always make me laugh while teaching truth.
Thanks also for the shout-out. You’ll receive extra candy in your Halloween bag as my thanks!
Ah, yes, WordStar. I have six or seven novels written in WS, backed up on 5 1/4″ and 3″ floppies. They received rave rejections in the ’90s but were never published. I may resurrect one series someday b/c people still ask, “Whatever happened to those murder mysteries that took place in a nudist resort?”
Happy Halloween, Ruth and Anne!
“Whatever happened to those murder mysteries that took place in a nudist resort?” Hahaha.
Btw, my husband and I formed our own publishing company a year ago and named it Wordstar. When we applied for a trademark, we were concerned that there may be some overlap with the famous word processor of long ago, but there wasn’t. We recently received our U.S. trademark for Wordstar.
Debbie—OOOH! Extra candy??? Bring. It. On. 😉
When I fished WordStar out of my memory bank, I wasn’t even sure I had the right name. I had to Google it!
You still have your ancient floppies? Are they readable? I have some 3″ but have never even tried to figure out how to read them. Wow. Talk about the crypt!
Kay—Thanks for posting. That’s super interesting. Congratulations! It’s a really good name.
Got the same issue that i will elaborate on in a fuller comment, but I believe you can still buy a completely attachable, via USB, floppy disc drive. I did myself back when XP had first come out and they building computers w/o said attachment.
Great post, as always. I have 2 or 3 of these in my computer “drawer”. This makes me want to go look at them again, now that I have numerous years under my belt. Thank you for the tips!
Thanks, Patricia!
Go for it! Why not think of it as a treasure hunt? You never know what gems you will find. 🙂
Boo! And happy Halloween!
I have approximately a dozen manuscripts in various stages of completion (fortunately all are printed out) that suffer from the dreaded disease of lost plotting. Currently, I’m going through the painstaking process of revisiting and rewriting/revising them, which presently stand at two in their 2nd stage of editing (courtesy of a tip from some well known writer who said that we should actually name our chapters, which is an excellent tip to make you actually think. Many thanks to them).
i do however, have about five to six dozen floppies that I will explore some day. They contain besides pics, wall paper and e-mails, a ton of digital versions of my Rube Goldberg Frankensteins. Fortunately, I do have a hard drive for them….fun times indeed.
GB—Sounds like you’re on a rewarding quest, and adding chapter titles will help you pull that lost plot out of the wilderness. Rewriting/revising is a great opportunity for writers to flex everything they’ve learned over time.
As you say, fun times — and good times — ahead! Good luck and blue skies!
Great piece, Ruth, and very appropriate for Halloween!
In my case, your post rang a bell! It’s exactly what happened with my children’s book – originally written…over 3 decades ago, in 1990, and even winning awards but then failed to get distributed to libraries because the publisher went bankrupt, argh! Well, all that happened in Italy and the publishing industry there is rather special…
And now I’m working on reviving it. Result: With the acquired experience since then, and working in a different language (English, not Italian), the manuscript looks vastly different! Now I have hopes for…resurrection!
Happy Halloween!
Claude—Wow, what a fabulous opportunity! With your acquired ability plus the advantage of working in a different language, you’re certainly headed for a fresh and, as you say, a vastly different and improved ms.
Wishing you all the best with your exciting new/old children’s book!
What a great post! You’ve really encouraged me to go through old manuscripts and re-read them. (I do have a bunch in my filing cabinet.) Thanks so much.
Elizabeth—Thanks so much! I’m sure you’ll find treasures you’d forgotten. Now that you can look at those old mss with a fresh eyes, you’ll have a great opportunity to add to your catalogue.
This is almost too hilarious for me. I’ve got a novel about Mary Shelley I abandoned over a decade ago when I decided I was a nonfiction writer. I’ve been thinking about it lately, for some reason. Hmmm…is this a supernatural sign, synchronicity at work, lol? Thanks Ruth, you’ve got me thinking.
Debra Eve—thanks and lol! 🙂
Maybe Mary’s time has come? She’s been waiting. But maybe her patience has run out? Or not? It’s in your hands!
I love this! I have so many unfinished, abandoned manuscripts in drawers (yup, drawers, not computers–well, some on computers). I’ve seen posts about how you should get them out but this “how to” is awesome. Time to embrace my inner Dr. Frankenstein. Thanks, Ruth! ????
Sarah—Thank you!
I hope you and your inner Dr. F will show those old, unfinished mss who’s the boss! Remember, not all treasures gleam and glitter at first glance. 😉
Ruth, this post does provide hope, and we all need that. My first novel attempt was really good…so I thought when I wrote it. Now I look back at what I remember, and it was terrible. I can’t really revive it. This was before PCs. It was typed, and is now lost to the ages. Thank goodness. But, one thing I recall is what I learned during the writing: if you’re writing an involved scene of movement with many characters, you must create the scene, with characters, furniture, doors, etc. with pictures, so you can keep track of who and where and how. A stick-figure sketch is enough, but trying to write a scene like that without a visual aid is asking for rejection, and there are plenty of other things to foster rejection.
I do have a few short stories. though. that fit what you’re talking about, so thanks for the advice. Maybe some of them can be resurrected.
Fred—Yeah. I remember that, too. Way back when I thought what I wrote was really good. Now? Ha!.
Thanks for bringing up your technique for writing a complex scene. I do just what you do: make a sketch with stick figures to remind me of who’s where and who’s doing what. Essential!
I hope some of your stories will indeed find resurrection. Good luck with them!
Wonderful post. I’m not a writer, but I read every word to know what to say to encourage my writer friends who experience catastrophes and rejections. Thanks for your help.
Rae Longest—Thank you for the kind words! I hope that some of what I said will help encourage other writers. Rejection is No Fun.
Rae–What a good friend you are! Yes, writers can use all the encouragement they can get as they venture into the publishing process.