the craft. mining your own work.

Writing all the time is important. Now, I won’t say writers have to write every day. That is probably antiquated advice at this point. However, writing regularly I think is a better piece of advice. The reality is, you never know when you’ll need to pull on some of your older work and it’s easier to start with something than nothing. I say this as I am desperately working to finish a spec script that I should already have in my portfolio.

Nonetheless, this week, I wanted to talk a little bit about reworking some of your own writing and mining work you’ve already done.

I know this may come as a surprise but everything you write won’t be great. Or at least it may not be in its final form. I don’t know about you, but I have scraps of writing all over the place. But I do think it comes in handy when presented with opportunities. Recently, I was asked to write a short story for a forthcoming newsletter and instead of immediate panic, I knew I had a few different pieces I could sort through to see if something would work.

Unfortunately, nothing was just ready to go. But, I had a couple of ideas that could totally be reworked to make sense for this opportunity. What I noticed was that the stories felt a little incomplete. So, I sent a couple of the ideas over to my agent and editor to see which might be best for this newsletter. And then, the work became, how do I revise in a way that makes this a better piece of writing?

For this particular story, the bulk of what I’d written seemed like it could be the middle of the story. Originally, it was almost like a writing exercise for myself. I’d written a great scene, but not a complete story. Reworking takes outlining and some planning. I'm enjoying that part of the writing process these days. I used to just write so much and wherever I ended up was where I ended up. But now, I like to have a bit more of an arc which helps me with direction. This makes the writing more concise for me. I know that everyone won’t be plotters, you have to do what works for you. But I’ve been finding a nice mix of the two lately.

The planning has been simple. Being able to write a short summary of my work has helped. If you can’t simply put a story into a short paragraph, it likely doesn’t have a succinct plot. India Kea also mentioned in our work critique thinking of the questions you may want to answer in a work, allowing that to be your guide. I also like to think a lot about who this character may be and what is their arc? Where are they starting and where do I hope that they end up? When it comes to article writing, I’m asking myself before I start, what do I hope to say and what are the things that support it?

Currently, I’m writing around that scene. A new opening. Injecting some additional layers into what was already there and I’ll be writing a new ending. Easier said than done of course, but I feel like I’m so much closer already than I would have been if I was starting from scratch.

The major key here is that we can’t treat our writing as if it’s too precious. Tear it apart. Move it around. Make it better. That has been such an invaluable experience when it came to my debut novel. That revision process was so grueling, so seismic that I learned how to blow things apart and put them back together again.

Here’s the thing, you don’t ever have to be afraid to steal from yourself. As long as it’s not something published that you signed over the rights to, you can have at your own work. If you’re writing all the time, there is so much for you to pull from. Whether it’s for a short story or for a whole book. You just have to dig into it. If you’re going to pull from old blog posts, breathe new life into some of the concepts you may have covered. Do more research. Expand on a point that you kind of breezed past originally. Take out some of the unnecessary trains of thought and replace them with new elevated ones.

I don’t know about you, but writing feels like it breathes. Believe me, if I read my book from cover to cover at this very moment, a month out from publication, there would still be more I’d want to write, edit, or add.

Just because you typed it, doesn’t mean it’s final. And if you have published something and a lot of people haven’t read it, to me it still feels like fair game. Sure, you may want to hit unpublish on something if you hit a lick or a bigger opportunity for some of your words. But it’s yours to use as you see fit. Writing all the time ensures you have something to mine and becoming better at revision makes it so that you can continuously build on your own work.

Writing/Job Opportunities

Carl Anthony Lamarre is looking for more freelancers to help their hip hop and R&B teams. Send resume and writing clips to carl.lamarre@billboard.com.

Space.com is hiring a Staff Writer.

Insider Inc. is hiring an Editor of Freelance.

DC Scores is hiring a Director of Communications.

Hachette Book Group is hiring a Publicist for Basic Books/Seal Press.