Good morning! Hope all is well… Today I’m talking about that story. You know the one. The story grabs you by the collar and pulls you around until you do something with it. Have you ever had that happen? Most writers have. But today’s story is one that can’t go anywhere. What?
I, as many writers do, have a stack of unfinished manuscripts. The story filled our head and needed to be told, but only a chapter or maybe a couple of chapters in you hit a wall. And every way you try to get around that wall, you only end up digging a hole that just keeps going. So why do you keep trying? It’s the writer in you. The part of the writer’s brain that sees something that could be, but can’t be. You may say that doesn’t make sense, but hear me out.
For example, I had a storyline come to me during my writer’s block that seemed perfect. Almost too perfect. The beginning held so much promise. But as I wrote, the story got fuzzy, almost unrecognizable. All I was doing was putting words on the page just to make it to the next chapter. When I went back to read over what I wrote, well, let’s just say ‘Yuck’. It wasn’t the story I saw in my head. And it definitely wasn’t something I would publish. So, instead of wasting my time, I put it to the side. Maybe one day… But not today.
Although some discarded manuscripts do become a reality. One such manuscript was ‘Ghost Lover’. It was my first published manuscript. But the story started out over twenty years earlier. I had a vision but for some reason, it faded. I placed that manuscript in a desk drawer and left it there. I thought of it often but didn’t pick it back up until 2012 when my niece found it along with many other manuscripts. She read what I had on paper, yes it was typed on a typewriter, you know, old-school writing. Well, she said that it had a lot of promise.
I began to read the manuscript and realized, she was right. The story began to blossom inside my heart and poured out like water from a fountain. In only days I’d written over 30,000 words. So, from a discarded manuscript, one I thought couldn’t go anywhere, came one of my bestselling novels and my first published book.
So, my advice is this. If you have a manuscript that doesn’t seem to go anywhere, don’t totally give up. Just set it aside and come back to it later. It’s possible that it might become your bestseller one day or just collect dust in a drawer.
As always, good writing, and May God Bless You…
P.S. If you’re looking for your next read, give one of Ghost Lover a try!
Stephanie Hurt - Romance Author 