YOUR OWN HIDDEN GEMS (YES, YOU GOT 'EM) HOLLY SCHINDLER

I had just released my writing guide for kids (INVENT YOUR OWN SUPERHERO) when I came across this in the archives:


Super Susan is a heroine I created when I was about 8, judging by the handwriting of my initial notebook story. I had long forgotten all about her, but I absolutely fell in love with her all over again. And really, I couldn't come up with anything more timely: a superhero whose power is kindness!

I enjoyed Super Susan so much, I wrote and released a new story all about her--and even incorporated some of my 8-year-old artwork into the cover.

But the thing is, we've all got these gems in the archives. Maybe it's a character, or a passage. Maybe it's a surprise twist. Every single old piece of writing has some gold nugget buried in it.

I just think we get so discouraged with some of our older manuscripts that we start to think of them, at a certain point, as being complete and total junk. Maybe we write ourselves into a corner, or maybe we got a billion rejections for a particular project. But for some reason, we stop seeing this thing that had once given us so much joy as a limitless bucket of potential. Instead, we see it in a completely negative light.

But there are absolutely gems in those manuscripts. Sometimes, it just takes a little time, a little distance, in order to find them.

We've all got drawer manuscripts. Get yours out. Sift through it.

Find your gems.

Comments

  1. Yeah, I love this, too. It reminded me that I've actually thought about this in the past, but then forgot.... But I love the idea of rebooting a favorite grade school creation.

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    1. It's so much fun just to revisit where you own brain was when you were younger...

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  2. Yay for SUPER SUSAN! And for SUPER HOLLY who gave her new life!

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  3. I just published one of my seventh grade love poems in my recent middle-grade novel WRITE THIS DOWN, "giving" it to my protagonist Autumn Granger. The poem begins: "If thou would die, the snow would yield/ yet another grave for me...."

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