Fix or scrap?

We writers are weird creatures.

Anyone who knows us, or –God forbid– lives with us is fully aware of our little…err…quirks.

There is nothing like a tormented scream coming from the back bedroom at five to midnight. Most sane people would rush in there, expecting murder and mayhem. My significant other knows better. He is fully aware I've hit a rut, or I've discovered those 30k words I've written…don't work.

There is nothing like scrapping 25-30k. Trust me on this. I've just done it.

Yep, everything — and I really mean everything — I've written for Caedir…got scrapped.

A whole 26k. Gone bye bye. Reassigned to the "Might have been okay if it worked" folder. That's after I scrapped the original 8k.

Yes. That's how it goes sometimes. I had a brilliant (I thought, at the time) storyline for this book. And I wrote myself into one corner after another. I tried to rescue it–twice–and it just wasn't working for me. When I get the "This is crap" vibe from my writing, then it never sees the light of day. I will scrap it.

I can visualize several people shudder with horror.

But you know, I'd rather start over than try to fix something that refuses to be fixed. Sometimes a storyline just doesn't work. Rather than put out some substandard drivel, I start over.

Which is what I did on Saturday. I'm back up to over 10k already, and so far…I like it. (And I hope the readers will, when it's ready.)

Occasionally you can recycle a story, most often you can't. Sometimes you can fix the problems, other times you can't.

That's the writing process. It's frustrating when nothing you do bends the story in the direction you want it to go. Usually because your characters do what they want, rather than what you want. (I'm seriously considering clicker training my heroes…It works with horses, after all!)

I've dumped lots of stories into that "Might have been" folder. Lots and lots of them. If anyone saw my manuscripts folder, they'd probably faint.

There are hundreds of mishaps on there.

I never delete them. Never, never, never.

While something might not work for the story it's meant for, I may well revisit the idea for another story. I have scene snippets all over the place, whole chapters, whole books.

This one didn't want to be clicker trained, so I denied all treats and stuck it in a dark hole instead.

But I'm writing up a storm on the new version, and I have a feeling this one will be the one you'll get to see next February.