Real Words

I am one of those people who has half a dozen writing projects that were started in the past and now just sit half-finished in the proverbial bottom desk drawer. Every year or so, I turn back to at least one of these projects and try to revive it. And every year or so, I also start another big project. I haven’t quite decided whether it’s better to work on the old stuff or begin the new stuff.

Working on the old stuff seems like a step backwards in some ways. I’m not in the place where I was when I began those pieces. I’m not sure that I want to return to the themes and ideas that were taking place when I was inspired to do these things. This is particularly true of a big fiction project that I’ve toyed with off and on for the past few years.

On the other hand, these projects always kind of bring me back to myself. I revisit those old themes and find new ways to express the thoughts and theories that I was mulling over at the time. Even fiction is all about what is going on with the author at the time of the writing and this means that I can learn about the self of the past and maybe even move foward into the future by revising and adding to the old works.

But it’s important to me to begin new works as well. Some of these will be finished quickly, others finished slowly and others abandoned – or left to be worked on a little bit more someday like the manuscripts and other projects that have steadily added up over the years.

What I am trying to remember as I sift through the old and start the new is that writing isn’t really about the product that is created but rather about the process of creating. This is difficult to keep in mind, partly because we all like to see our own finished products. And partly because it’s not entirely true – a big part of writing is the starting, doing and completing of our pieces. But not every piece needs to go through the whole start-to-end cycle for the process itself to have value.

What do you think? Should we work on old projects or abandon them over time?