Okay, re-discovered is more like it.
Do you know the ones I'm talking about? The toffee like pieces of candy that come individually wrapped in the orange, yellow and black paper? I used to get these in my Halloween bag all the time, and I remember sorting them out and putting them in the "not so great" pile.
How could they possibly compare to peanut butter cups or chocolatey covered nougat? But that never stopped me from unwrapping one or two, just for the heck of it (I mean, who was I to waste candy?).
A few days ago, I bit into one and it immediately took me back to my childhood. They're soft and gooey and chewy, and oh-so-good. And even though I saw absolutely no value in them back then, that one bite almost fifteen years later changed things.
Not only did they have value, but I actually chose to get them over the Mars Bars.
So, of course, one thing led to another, and you just know it got me thinking. A lot of the time we may write off a scene, chapter or entire novel, because it doesn't fit into our current goals and objectives. And I know the golden rule is to cut what doesn't work. Clean it up.
But then again, maybe it just doesn't work right now.
Save it. Come back to it. Maybe it will better fit somewhere else in your life... at a different point, in a different chapter... in a new story. Go through your shelved manuscripts, your long forgotten short stories. Who knows? You may just find a sweet treasure hidden within the pages.
So, my burning question.... what's your favorite Halloween candy? ;) AND, have you ever found ideas in an old MS or story that you could use now?
28 comments:
I like the plain Hershey bars, just pure chocolate! And yes, I have mined old work for ideas and used pieces written in the past. It's interesting how the time has to be just right for some passages.
Ah, I LOVE those candies. Reeses are my personal favorite but I just bought a bag of mini Twix for myself, haha.
Sometimes that happens. I'll get an idea of a story and it just seems very mundane and boring. When I try to write it nothing seems to work. Awhile later I may combine it with new ideas and then it's fabulous or I may just obtain the skill I was missing to write it.
Xoxo
My favorite Halloween candy is those white candy sticks that come in little boxes....I could eat a whole bag of those! :)
Peanut butter cups.
I dug up an old manuscript once. Story was awful, but the characters were strong and one scene powerful. I decided to rewrite the whole thing. That story became my first book.
SweeTarts.
I do save bits a bits and drafts (dated) so pick through to see if something fits that I didn't think would.
Good point. It takes a creative brain to make an analogy of childhood candy to our writing. BTW, I used to hate those and now I love them.
I save unwanted scenes (or parts of them) in a "parking lot" file, possibly to be used later on.
So what was the candy called?
My daughter's boyfriend sends her Reeces's peanut butter cups from America and , oh my! I love them :-)
Honestly, I don't eat candy but ... I am going to make molasses cookie/biscuits for Tim during our upcoming Halloween StayCation. Never made them before but since they are on his request list, I'm excited to give'em a go.
Boogie boogie.
PS: I will eat my own homemade candy.
It's not a candy, but I love caramel apples for Halloween treats. And yes, every single piece of writing I've done has borrowed some element from a previous work. The most common stowaways are character and place names.
The one candy that sticks out for Halloween that I don't indulge in year round is candy corn.
I have used ideas from one book that I don't plan on publishing into another piece I am working on.
Oh, I LOVE those kisses! Yum. I haven't had any for ages. Sadly, Hallowe'en isn't popular in England, so I need to live vicariously through my blogging buddies.
I don't know these. I hated molasses as a kid, so I'm sure I didn't give them a chance.
My favorites are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and candy corn.
Very nice analogy. I hated (still hate) those candies, too. I am off store-bought candy now, but learned to make these phenomenal peanut butter cups.
YES!!!!! Kisses are my favourite Halloween candy and very true about the writing stuff too! I just found your blog and have been looking through; it's awessome!
http://bunnysunday.wordpress.com
Almond Joy. I always think I will find a home for the darlings I kill, but, frankly, then I always forget.
Awesome post. My favorite is the mini orange pumpkins. Won a bag of them in a grade school and they've tasted like victory to me ever since.
As for the unwanted scenes I've cut out before...Sadly, I haven't actually had a chance to use any of them yet but hopefully I will in the future.
Thanks for following my blog. I'm having a blast reading yours! :)
Being the typical Brit, I never went Trick or Treating. This post is making me feel like I missed something. The sweets you're describing sound lovely!
And it's so true about hidden gems - things we don't realise are great at the time, but are just waiting for the write moment or circumstance.
I choose the Mars bars and the Caramilk bars - yum! :)
I always save my deleted stuff - but I've never even looked at it again! :)
I love how you are always able to relate everything to writing and make connections that normally wouldn't be thought of.
Toffee is so amazing, though I'm really prone to cavities so unfortunately I can't eat a lot of candy.
~TRA
The Red Angel Blog
I have candy corn right now. I hadn't eaten it in ages, and when I bought it a few days ago it reminded me of childhood.
I purposefully shredded some of my earlier works because they were really awful, but I do take bits and pieces of my other unpublished manuscripts to create new stories.
Mounds, of course, but I also like candy corns. :)
I have not ever looked at an old MS for ideas. That's a good suggestion.
Happy Halloween.
Snickers are a well-balanced meal - protein, dairy, mystery nugat that perhaps comes from a vegetable... corn syrup's healthy, right?
Oh, I love how you describe the toffee. I haven't used old ideas yet, but I save my edits in hope that someday I will!
They do say your tastes change as you get older. :)
There are definitely shelved novel ideas that I sometimes go back to in my head and rework, but I have a (sometimes bad) habit of being a ruthless cutter & not looking back. My friend, on the other hand, she'll take scenes or paragraphs that she knows she has to cut from the actual story and save them off to the side - in case she can use them again later.
I definitely keep little bits of ideas and use them elsewhere if they don't fit where I initially thought they would. Great point!
i love candy, unfortunately candy hates my teeth. gummy bears are best!!
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