Letters to Kel: NEVER THROW OUT ANYTHING

Okay, I'm going to start out with a confession: Contrary to what I'm going to tell you, I HAVE thrown out some of my first stories.
Why?
Because they're so raw, so stupid, so badly plotted, so embarrassing, I do NOT want this drek hanging around to be found after I'm dead.

But putting that consideration aside ... DON'T throw out anything you've written. (Just make sure that it's put somewhere with some plastic explosive and a deadman switch, so it self-destructs the minute your heart stops, that's all. If you're worried about people knowing just how awful your first dozen short stories or poems or songs or scripts were. Just saying ...)
Why keep this embarrassing stuff around?
Because you can RE-USE it someday.
Because right now, I'm kicking myself over a Star Trek novel that I started writing -- longhand, on legal pads, back before I had a computer -- and I eventually threw it out one day when I decided I didn't want to pursue trying to write for the Star Trek universe. I thought there was nowhere else I could get it published.

WRONG-O!

Everything you've written, no matter how short, no matter if it's an outline, a bungled synopsis, a single scene, a character sketch, a conversation between two unidentified people, or in my case fan fiction of all types ... you CAN revise it, and use it somewhere else. After you've learned enough, gained enough skill, to know why exactly the first version was so awful.

For example ... I wrote a Highlander fan novel (and if you have the time, I'll tell you why it's an example of why a bad, awful, moronic agent is worse than having no agent at all...) and earlier this year I revised it to turn it into a novel in my Quarry Hall series, "Nikki."

I wrote a Star Trek fan novel back when a friend and I were into fan publishing. It was titled "Avenger," and took place in the Classic Trek timeline. I spent the last year, off and on, revising it and creating an entire new universe around it called the Seed Worlds, and right now that book is sitting under consideration with a publisher.

I wrote a script for "MacGyver" just before the final half-season. It didn't sell, but I turned it into a feature-length screenplay, and then later turned it into the novel "Wheels," part of my Tabor Heights series.

Now ... I am taking two screenplays and will be adapting them into novels. This is going to take major revisions, adding people, recreating histories and details, and taking into account major changes in technology. One screenplay I wrote for a contest back before there were cell phones. Yeah, that long ago ... *sigh* Look for the Quarry Hall novel, "Charli," to come out in mid-2015. The other screenplay was written for my master's portfolio, fulfilling requirements for my degree in Communication, focused on film and writing, from Regent University. The screenplay, "Peregrine," will only take a little adapting to fit into the Commonwealth Universe. My goal is to get this book, now called "Soloanna," ready to turn in to my publisher, Writers Exchange, to be published some time in 2015.

I'll talk more about adapting and the differences between screenplays and novels in future blogs.

But the main thing is: If I didn't hold onto those fan novels and screenplays, I wouldn't have strong foundations for books. I wouldn't have the skeleton of stories that I can adapt and re-sculpt to suit new characters and locations and conflicts. Besides, no writing is ever wasted. No matter how bad it is, it's practice, it's growth and development of your skill. Look at it this way: manure stinks, but after it sits around long enough, you use it for fertilizer, right? It helps something useful grow.

Don't throw out ANYTHING! EVER!