1. Megs33

    Megs33 Active Member

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    What do you do with the stuff you cut?

    Discussion in 'Revision and Editing' started by Megs33, Feb 21, 2017.

    The entire arc of my story just changed. a large chunk of what I've already written is either getting retooled or tossed entirely.

    I kind of want to clean house and start fresh so old material isn't influencing my new ideas, but at the same time i don't want the "first draft" to fade away, especially if I want to look back at those old ideas for some kind of nugget later.

    My current modus operandi is to just toss discarded ideas in to a word document, but there's zero rhyme or reason to it. it's just a giant hodge podge of incomplete and semi-illiterate snippets that may or may not "have potential". i've avoided trying to come up with a better system because i tend to overcomplicate... everything.

    How do you keep track of the stuff that gets cut? Or do you?
     
  2. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    I like to keep previous iterations, because a lot of the revision I do is experimental, just to try another way. Sometimes it's not better, so if I had lost the previous draft, that'd be bad news.

    So, when I begin on a new draft, I open a new word document and copy and paste the older version. I wind up in my fiction folder with Untold1 Untold2 Untold3 etc. That's been the easiest way for me to keep old work and sometimes I do go back and use discarded drafts, characters, dialogue for inspiration.
     
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  3. Iain Sparrow

    Iain Sparrow Banned Contributor

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    I do the exact same thing, except I don't even give discarded passages and ideas the dignity of a Word Doc... they simply get tossed in a heap into a Mac Notes file.

    You have to throw some darlings into the river. Writing is a ruthless business.:)
     
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  4. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    A lot of the time I just delete it. When it's a major revision or I think I might actually want/need to revisit the older version, I save the older one as something like "[title] -- first cut" and subsequent drafts with "[title] -- second cut" etc. I also keep wordcounts in filenames so for instance I've got one that's named "Ichthypolis -- 1.1k" and one that's "Ichthypolis -- 1.5k" - in that case I don't actually know which edit I like better, so I didn't want to imply that one was more final than the other. I also have one that's "Ichthypolis -- PROG" because it's currently being edited, so there's no solid wc, and I haven't kept linear cuts, just edited it in a really scattershot way.
     
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  5. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    I always date my word docs and save them. So in the end I'll have a folder that will read AwesomeNovel92316, AwesomeNovel103416, etc... that will roughly fit into the first, second, or third draft way of thinking. And for each those I have another document that will say "_cuts" at the end of it, so I end up with AwesomeNovel92316_cuts, AwesomeNovel103416_cuts, etc... in which all the major deletions get cut and pasted with a little note about where it was and what I was thinking and why I cut it. Most of the time I don't need to go back into those, but every once in awhile I'll remember something from there and want to go back and use it again.
     
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  6. NiallRoach

    NiallRoach Contributor Contributor

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    I send it into cyberoblivion
     
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  7. Wolf Daemon

    Wolf Daemon Active Member

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    Well I have recently been working on a homebrew RPG and everytime I make a new draft I simply make a new word document. Just my thoughts. As for Books I have never been one for second drafts as all my good work is in the first bout of writing. Other than editing I don't see a need for it as long as you have a good outline to your book.
     
  8. Sack-a-Doo!

    Sack-a-Doo! Contributor Contributor

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    I save to a new, dated file every day, so all my cuts are preserved somewhere.

    Not that I ever go back and use them. ;)
     
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  9. xanadu

    xanadu Contributor Contributor

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    Each draft is a separate document, so I just delete or alter the content of the newest draft without worry.
     
  10. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I keep a document with any significant stuff I've cut from each book. Rarely use any of it, but it's there if I need it.
     
  11. ajaye

    ajaye Senior Member

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    I save everything - so easy with these modern computer things - and number the versions. When I'm struggling to write something new I might pluck out an old piece and fiddle some more.
     
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  12. Laurin Kelly

    Laurin Kelly Contributor Contributor

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    I keep a copy of every draft. If your book becomes even moderately successful, you can always post an excerpt as an Easter egg or missing scene (advice from my editor, which I actually followed through on).
     
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  13. RaitR_Grl

    RaitR_Grl Member

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    I have printed drafts of my work. Prose, notes, anything I've brainstormed... Every once in a while, I'd print everything I have, take a break from my computer, and just go through my drafts to see if there's anything I want to add, remove or just move around. From there, I'd collect everything I wrote down, go into my MS Word docs and make those changes. Plus I may make even more changes in Word before I print again. BUT I still keep my previous printed drafts in case I decide to look back at them for inspiration later.
     
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