We all have those stories that will never see the light of day. Either because they are too derivative, too offensive, too lame, or simply too awful, they lie on the hard drive, simply waiting to be deleted.
But wait! Is that dark lump merely coal that needs to be pressed into a diamond (rather than "you-know-what")? Don't be too hasty in deleting bad stories. There may be scenes you can use, characters you can rescue, spells that can be revamped, settings which can be remodeled or get a major landscaping job. For example, I once wrote a book called "Karah and Jesse." It was actually completed before "AIR WARS", although it was begun after I started that series. It was, quite frankly, a crude knock-off of "West Side Story." My own little brother, who loved everything that I wrote, grabbed it, ran out of the room, came back, and yelled, "Hey Michael, this story suuuuucks." Suffice it to say that a novel is bad if you have a gangster named Bambi. I never considered throwing it away, but I wanted to bury it in a box in the darkest corner of my parents' attic.
However, after I completed "Heart of Flesh", I noticed that many characters from "Karah and Jesse" were either resurrected as newer, original, and more tasteful. Cassandra assimiliated Karah's traits into her personality, and Nikki, who was Karah's best friend, reappeared as Schyla. Raf, a Hispanic gang leader with a chip on his shoulder (sound familiar, lol?) was scrapped, but his chip was given to Max. Cody, the cousin of Jesse, came back as Cassandra's female childhood nemesis and the older sister of her crush. I even found a place in Nineveh for Bambi, although her name was changed immediately. If I had buried the manuscript, the Nineveh stories would not have been very good at all.
So there you have it. Recycling is good, so do it!
