Fragment files
No, not fragmented files – I’m not going to tell you to defrag your computer! I keep a fragment file; it contains all the little bits of stuff I want to write about but haven’t fitted into a story yet like:
1 the line of conversation I overhead at a wildlife park ‘So they’re all having fish except the polecats and they get fish-heads, right?’ – irresistible, even if I don’t quite know what to do with it yet.
2 the fact that Inuit and Himalayan peoples have the same creation myth – there’s got to be a science fiction super-race story in that somewhere.
3 the death certificates of girls who worked in match factories before the first war and died of ‘fossy jaw’; cancer of the bone caused by phosphorus in matches.
When I can’t think of anything to write, I pull out that file and start going through it. I never get to the end because something always triggers the urge to write.
It also contains fragments that I have removed from stories. Lovely lines of prose or beautiful descriptions that I don’t want to lose, but that didn’t fit with the final version of the story, or wouldnt’ have been right for the publication I was aiming at. I’ve never used one of those edited baubles again, but knowing there’s a place I can keep them safe makes it easier for me to cut them from my final version. Publication requires ruthlessness from the writer, and alhtough it hurts to cut the words I think are the best or the most beautiful, I have learned to accept that if I want to be published, I have to be tough on beauty if it doesn’t fit the piece.
3 Comments
Linda Donovan
23rd June 2006Yes, this is a great way to keep fragments alive and to kick creativity into gear. Sometimes in going through these, I start laughing. Other times it’s painful to see what had to be cut. Recently, I invested in Post-It Notes (electronic) for my computer. I often cut to these post-it notes, and browse through them later.
And here I thought I was being neurotic.
W. Olivia
24th June 2006Hi Kay, glad I found your blog!
I too keep story fragments forever–one I kept for 5 years and did eventually use. Glad I’m not the only one!
chery
30th June 2006An old story, but many of us can still relate?
Oscar Wilde was told to shorten his article for the newspaper if he wanted to see it in print. After a sleepless night of hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing, he returned his article to the editor three words shorter.
“Here,” he moaned aloud as he handed over the ms, “is the bleeding corpse.”