Today I plugged in my old external hard drive for the first time in . . . well, long enough that thinking about how long I’ve gone without a proper back up of my files that it makes me anxious. On this old hard drive, I have 21 finished manuscripts ranging from the time I was 13 to now (or a few years ago anyway).

A few of these I self-published once upon a time (image of the physical copies featured for this blog), most of them I haven’t even thought about in years.

Along with the novel manuscripts there’s a heap of short stories and even a couple of attempts at poetry that are better left in the dark. 

My fellow writers out there will know only too well just how cringe inducing reading your old stuff can be. But I can remember sitting in my 9th grade English class writing some of these pieces.  A lot of these old pieces, I’ve contemplated deleting over the years. But I just never could manage to take that step. no matter how awful I might think they are in retrospect, I remember the act of writing them, how much time I invested and how much fun I had writing them.

For most of high school and college I was active on online writing communities. I made many dear friends on those sites, and for those that I’ve lost touch with over the years, these stories are little time capsules that remind me of all the conversations and brainstorming sessions that happened during that time.

I might read some really over the top scene where I was trying to prove just how different and unique I was from other teenagers, and after I’m done cringing, I remember the joke I made of it with my fellow writers. Sometimes we did cross overs with our characters, taking the hero from one fantasy story and plopping them into a modern horror.

But it isn’t just the memories that make these old pieces valuable. Nor is it just the much needed reminder of how much my writing has improved.

These old manuscripts also contain hidden gems. Little bits and pieces that, despite my immaturity and lack of practice, still shine. Those scenes our characters or interactions that just keep coming back to me year and year, project after project. 

And who says you can cannibalize your own work? Just because one story didn’t work out doesn’t mean that gem needs to live in storage for the rest of eternity. Pull it out, dust it off, and see if it might fit into your latest work! 

Personally, I’ve used tarot cards before to help me find some “spontaneity” when I’m feeling stuck. Now I’m wondering about doing something like that with some of these gems. Write them out on cards to pull at random when I need some new direction…

Or something. The idea is still only half formed. What I do know for sure is that there’s worth in this old work, in many different ways. 

I’ll leave you with week with a friendly reminder to backup your computers. You never know when those old files might come in handy, even those that you might leave explicit instructions to delete once you shuffle off this mortal coil