So I have been working on a new book and there was a scene from an older–prolly won’t finish any time soon–WIP that I wanted to “borrow” from. Cut and paste. Cut and paste. Tweak, tweak, tweak. Viola, I have just added a scene or two in a matter of seconds.

I realized I have done this several times before. {Note to all interested parties–this is ALWAYS from my own personal WIPs so don’t go getting all litigious on me}.  I have many older WIPs that have holes here and there from ripping it apart to put in newer WIPs.

Is this normal? Do you often steal from yourself. Or maybe it’s not even stealing, but mining. Until it’s published, it pretty much is fair game, I guess. And it’s not like you haven’t already put the work/effort into it. But it almost feels like cheating. I can’t say exactly why though.

On the flip-side of mining, I have even written just a scene. Depending on what ispirired it in the first place, it tends to be vague enough that it may be worked into a WIP at a later date, but it was something that struck me too profoundly to not jot down–lest I lose it in my overfull/hyperactive imagination. As well as whole scenes cut that didn’t work. I don’t want to delete them completely–you never know when it will fit perfectly elsewhere. So I have a file of orphaned scenes.

A junk drawer of sorts for WIPs and whatnot. :cool:

What about y’all? (As you have probably noticed, I am always curious how other writers writer.) Lemme know if you go digging for dilemmas in your potential possibilities. :gold: