What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone?
If you haven't gone through them in a long time, read them. They might spark something creative in you. Maybe not to complete that particular story but I've gone through old things I wrote but did nothing with and it's sparked new characters for a new novel. After that put them away.
Stephen King put together a book from a collaboration of several old short stories he wrote but that never ended up full-length novels. Cat's eye was made into a movie. You never throw out the stuff you write or ideas you have because you might need them one day.
That's my current situation right now since I'm still young, but in my opinion, you should take them out and show them to your family and friends. Who knows, they might say you have potential and you could put your work up for publishing.
Just throw it out there--if you're as good as you think you are, sooner or later, the world will recognize your genius!
Read them through again and do any editing or rewriting you think necessary, then go with your gut feeling, if you think they're good then find out who is publishing in your genre and send them out. You'll never know if you don't try.
Find the courage to share. It may be your best work/creation ever.
Why not dig them out of the drawer, and re-read them. Try reading them aloud to the cat or dog if you can't face real people! If they still speak to you there's a chance they will speak to other people too. Arm yourself with a copy of the W&A Handbook - send shorts to magazines that publish them, or submit a few chapters to publishers or agents who handle your kind of work. You can start getting a feel whether your work is publishable very quickly. There's also online self publishing sites like Lulu or Blurb for work with a limited or personal market. Why not give it a go?
Reread and reworwk. Don't give up totally without a fight.
Read them over again and, if you find you are still approving of what you wrote, go on to share it with others, hear their comments and so on.
I would recommend finding a writing group or taking a writing class and then sharing your writing with people who also want you to look at their work. Since they want you to be serious about their work, they will be serious about yours and it is the most wonderful nurturing place to learn about writing and editing and critiquing in my experience.
Well, read them, see if they make sense to you years later. If they don't, then try to re-write the stuff you wrote, and then see if anyone would be willing to read your writings.
Read them over, one at a time, edit them and have a friend or two read them and critique, then offer them in a contest or two, see how they present. If you enter contests that are sponsored by publishers, such as Dorchester's annual contest, you can find out if your work is going to stand up. If you wrote it years ago, you want to refresh it before you present it.
Read them yourself to see if they're still relevant to you. If so, find someone you trust to read them and give honest, gentle feedback. But more importantly, keep writing new work.
Dust if off and look it over. If it holds up to the passage of time and doesn't make you cringe, then absolutely show it to someone. Ideally someone who reads and whose opinion you respect. Don't show it to someone whose idea of culture is American Idol.
Put them on a blog. |
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