Letting Your Writing Cool for a While…

Sometimes the very best thing you can do for a story you’ve written is to shove it in a box and walk away. Well, this is 2012…shove the USB drive containing your story in a box and walk away. Obviously, this advice in no way applies to stories you have to write for English class because turning in a handwritten note that says, “Some lady on the internet said I should shove my story in a box…I’ll bring it to you in three weeks,” isn’t going to work for your teacher.

I wrote my very first novel in 2009. I sent it to my mom a few chapters at a time. She and her best friend declared it to be the Best Book Ever Written in the History of Book Writing. They are total liars. I’ve actually pulled the book out of storage and begun editing it. I can see their lies from here.

I also wrote a novel last year that I shoved in a very similar box, and I’m so glad I did. I finished it and stored it, and never thought of it again until October of this year when I decided to drag it out and try to make something of it. And I’m in love with this story. The characters are my new best friends. I want to be the MOM of one of the characters, just so I can wrap her up in my shawl and protect her from all the crap that I’m going to do to her throughout the book. The whole story is grabbing me, and it’s no longer a chore of a book that I had to finish writing. Now it’s a tangible world I’ve created that I can’t wait to work on every day.

Sometimes, you have a blog post or a short story to write that is kind of seat-of-your-pants, and that’s okay. But other times, you will want to take your time with a story and really make every single word a separate decision. That’s okay, too. Let it cool for a while, then come back to it with a fresh set of eyes and a mind that is ready to take your story in any direction it wants to go. Just don’t forget to come back to it after you’ve shoved it in a box!