July 8, 2008
Pick and paste
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. 
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. 
I have ’stolen’ from myself. lol. But an odd thing happens each and every time. Through tweaking and editing, whatever I ’stole’ gets edited right out! I think in some ways maybe it worked as a ‘bridge’ for me to move on with the story.
I’d never thought of it as a “keep moving forward”… good point–because Lord knows if given the chance to sit and stare into space, I totally would!
Ummmmmmmmmm no. I have taken a scene from one story and put it in another story and changed it so it was from someone else’s POV (out of necessity) but mining something….no. For me, I think each story is pretty unique and I’m actually very conscious of what I’ve written before (or try to be) and try NOT to duplicate myself–same types of characters, same storylines etc.
I was recently talking to a friend about Hooked and she said, “Can someone snatch the heroine so the hero has to save her?” And I said, “No, because Hooked is part of an anthology and something like that happens in the first story.” I REALIZE it’s “execution” but it smacked a little too much of laziness to me so it was an automatic no.
Have I gone a-mining?
You betcha.
It may be an idea for a scene, or even something more detailed. Yes.
But I do notice that, on the few occasions I’ve done it, that scene will change and adapt to what I’m currently working on, so it’s never exactly the same as it was.
I think Erica Orloff posted on something like this recently. She referred to it as “robbing the graveyard”, I believe.
Very apt.
I think the only story I mine from is my first one. It will never see the light of day, but it has about a million plot lines, actual good scenes, I can take from and use it in another story. The only other thing I consciously mine from my other stories are references to The Princess Bride. I like to think of it as a homage of sorts.
Yep. I do it, and for some strange reason I always feel guilty. Go figure.
Yup, I do it. Sometimes just a description, but I do it.
Whenever these things POP into my head (and you can ask Ames and Lynn–these things POP in often!) I always think I’m the only one… no one else does soemthing weird like this. I am ever so glad to know I am not alone!
Tanya, I understand the guilt thing. I have felt that before, but it’s not like you didn’t write it in the first place. right… at least that’s what I tell myself when I pick things apart
Also I think it’s more of a situational thing. I don’t put things verbatim in, but If I have the heroine go through something that I have already used, I pull it out of the original work. Soemtimes it’s works better and some times I may end it trashing that scene.
But like as Amie said, you don’t want things to be too similar when writing. I have read some books where the location is different but the characters are going through the exact same thing–to a “T”–and that’s gets worrisome for me. You want it to be fresh!