Dame Lili
Okay, more like twenty. Or even thirty.
I used to feel embarrassed over the size of my slush pile before the Selkie admitted she had one just as big. And yes, it’s definitely a slush pile. These are stories that, no matter how much I love them, just don’t cut it. They range from wish-fulfillment fics to weird little fever dreams, odd fantasy ficlets and what I call “character studies”, where I follow a character around through an ordinary day and just get to know them.
This week, between everything (the vomiting six-year-old, the brief hospitalization of a family member, and a ton of work leftover from being out of commission during a bad bout of flu), I’ve been looking at my personal slush file. Because every once in a while you do find a nugget of gold in there–something you can dig up and maybe polish. It might turn into a short story, or even a novel. Unfortunately, you have to sift a LOT of it before you get that gold. (Which is why I call it a slush pile or “the graveyard”.)
And sometimes it’s nice to look through things that won’t get published. On the pages in my slush file, the only person I have to please is myself. Shoddy characterization, plot holes you could drive a Buick through, giddy deus ex machina glibly handing over plot advancement by dropping the magic dingus in? Oh, yeah, I’ve done it. I’ve broken the rules with gleeful abandon here on my hard drive. I am guilty of all a writer’s sins there.
Seriously. It’s bad. It’s like Tinto Brass’s Caligula married to overcaffeinated Bulwer-Lytton and seeing both Pamela and the Bad Hemingway Contest on the side in there, with the Jerry Springer show on the sidelines.
You may think I’m kidding. But really, I’m not. It’s bad.
The personal slush file is also a sandbox where I can try new things. The first stabs at paranormal romance or fantasy I ever made were as a result of digging in that sandbox and trying things out. They’re malformed little stories, rarely longer than 20K before they peter out, but they were invaluable. They gave me the confidence to try more, and they showed me where things weren’t working.
The danger in the slush pile is the danger of never quite finishing anything, or of loving stuff so much that you refuse to take edits or get better. The slush pile is your personal playground, true, but it’s like your bedroom. You don’t have to invite anyone in you don’t want; but you also can’t live your whole life there. (You have to come out and deal with the rest of the world sometime, you know.) When all is said and done, it’s your private place to decorate however you want to. It can help inform the rest of your professional life with joy, but it doesn’t belong out there.
And sometimes it’s the place where you crawl back to when you’re exhausted and just need the blankets and the comfort. Sometimes, when you’re tired and the world is just Not Cooperating, the slush pile is a nice warm place to be. You don’t have to please an editor or a reader, other than your own sweet self, and you can do anything you want there. It’s one of the things that makes this job one of the best in the world, in my humble opinion.
So if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to dive back in. I’ve got some bad, horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad Twinkie fiction to write for my sole delectation. It involves this super-spy, you see, and a very nice girl next door who just HAPPENS to be a werewolf on the run from the law…
See you around.
We’ll finish up today with news and a contest!
The news: The latest Jill Kismet book, Redemption Alley, is now available for preorder on Amazon.
And a contest to finish off the second launch week of Deadline Dames! Comment on this post, dear Reader (you can tell me about your own slush pile) and if you comment by midnight on Saturday, January 31, you have a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate. How cool is that? (Winner will be picked randomly, with the help of Random.org.) So get your comment on!
Related posts:
I work in a law firm library, and my slush pile is made up of all those ideas I had for making the library run better that just didn’t quite work. You know, the ones that are meant to save time but take so long to implement that you really don’t save any time at all.
I love the new blog. I’m really enjoying each of the posts. Keep it up!
Oh man. The slush pile in my head is all those angsty teen ideas I got when i was growing up. All sad and depressing with angry moments and silent main characters. Weiiiiird.
I tend to have all these “misc” Word docs into which I toss sentences/paragraphs/pages that don’t fit, but that I can’t bear to destroy utterly. Frequently that ends up larger than the final “real” file…
The majority of my slush pile are stories I wrote back in college…angsty, sad, whiny little things that I’d never in a million years read, but somehow felt the need to write. There’s a horror story or two in there. A few aborted SF&F novels.
I like going back every now and then because even if an entire piece doesn’t work, I always find a line of dialogue or a description that isn’t really all that bad.
I’d say most of my hard drive fiction folder is made up of my slush pile. But for the ones I don’t expect to ever read again, but of course can’t just delete, there is the Trunk of Banishment folder.
::laughs:: I always worried maybe I was the only one who kept dozens and dozens of slush story files on my computer! Glad to know I’m in good company. My slush files are full of half-finished stories I chickened out on, experimental scenes I don’t know what to do with yet, and lots of bits I just had fun with. Most of them will never see a printed page, but it *is* fun to open a file and poke around a bit without worrying about how it’s going to turn out. It’s like stepping into my own make-believe game.
THANK you, Dame Lili! For so long, I feared I was alone in the wilderness. I have one novel in my pile that goes all the way back to 1992. I pull it out periodically, dust it off and add a chapter or two. Maybe I’ll get it finished before I’m 90.
My problem is that my Muse wants to go play in the slush sandbox when she should be focused on the current project. Building sand castles is much more fun than hard edits.
My slush pile is actually still in my head. Everytime I try to put it onto paper or screen I realize I really am not a writer.
Ahh, wish fulfillment fic. That would certainly describe a lot of what lives in my “slush pile”. When characters don’t do what I want them to do (even as just a lowly writes-for-fun gal) sometimes a forceful hand is needed. Then you realized that as much as you want the shy shrinking violet to find out she’s really a witch she’s just better suited to being mugged by a werewolf on her way home from work one day. Or those stories where your hero makes a better villain. Or the maybe you just need to have the fun of tormenting your already tormented lead with a few ‘what if’s that just wouldn’t work for their proper storyline.
Even still, a lot of mine (like so many others) consists of older writing. Writing I keep because sometimes we need reminding that we’ve grown as a storyteller.
Great topic Dame Lili!
Mine’s not so big as I thought… plenty of aborted novels, yes. I think much of it was trial and error learning my process. Now I’m learning the fine art of revision so I have to finish or I won’t have anything to edit. *G*
I bought myself a USB floppy drive to revisit my OLD slush piles, the stuff I started years ago and liked at the time, I fear revisiting.
The “personal slush pile” – excellent! Mine is the 30 finished stories that lurk in the corner, behind the wall labeled “Fear of Revision”.
Cause they have various degrees of Teh Suck, but I just don’t know how to make them better. Much less anywhere near as good as the story that was in my head when I wrote them…
- yeff
No slush pile as I’m not a writer but does a giant pile of UFO’s (Un-Finished Objects in knitspeak) count?
I’m so, so happy to find out I’m not the only one with a personal slush pile. I have a folder devoted to ideas that just weren’t good enough. Or maybe they will be eventually. Whatever they are, they just aren’t it at the moment.
Thank you so much for this post!
Mine stretches back to grade school, written on spiral bound notebook paper, and involves more magical dragons than you could shake a princess at. /sigh
I really like the idea of having a “slush pile”– I’m not sure why I never thought of it that way before. Instead of looking at those ideas as “flawed”, I’m going to look at them as “mine”.
I’m going to share this concept with my high school students who labor under the premise that they are “bad” at writing because everything they write isn’t perfect the first time through.
Thanks for the post–this is so cool!
I have a flash drive full of slush. Once in a while I will poke my head in there, take a look around, cringe, and slam the door. My original duo of death, Jack and Trace, are in there and whenever I toe open the door they try to rip it open and escape. Trust me, Trace loosed on the world is scary. Plus, I don’t think my current duo Tylar and Sonnielle would put up with them. There would be blood shed.
I have too many word docs with just thought or a what if on them. I figure one day they may help me out. I have found that if I don’t at least write it down it will be gone forever.
I have about a dozen on the hard drive. The first full-length novel I ever wrote is on there and I refuse to delete it because I love it too much, so I keep adding to it and changing it. It so will never see the light of day, but it comforts me to see. Plus, the others, I’m afraid if I don’t write them down, I’ll forget them, and some of them are really good
mine is pieces of paper in differnt places so I am always losing them or throwing them away
Pretty much all of my writing is a personal slush pile. I mostly just write for myself now, write to get the scenes out of my head since I’ll just obsess about them anyway. Lately I mostly play around with characters from a Role-playing game (old school table top role-playing game type stuff…with pencils and paper and dice)…by lately I mean the last few years. I’m obsessed with the characters (especially the one I “play”). They are original characters (though not all mine) but the setting is not. But I like to play there. I’ve even written two nanowrimo novels there.
I’ve never called it a “slush pile” but man oh man do I have one… I think I have more in my slush than I do finished/out on submission. Hrnk. Stuff I mean to go back and poke at again, but my brain doesn’t often feel inclined to play along. Also stuff that’s only good for the LOLz… like the stuff written during my high school days when I thought a lot of gratuitous cursing made my characters really Real. HELL DAMN YEAH, IT DID!
What a lovely way to look at it. I hadn’t seen it so clearly before, but there is a file that I place all those horrid pieces that make me wonder what I was thinking when I wrote them I need to rename that folder, Slush or maybe Sandbox. Yes, I think I will. THank you!
In my slush pile, I attach a mini gun to my Celica for when I get stuck in horrible, awful, no good very bad Silicon Valley traffic. Other ideas include a Ford F350 dually (diesel of course) with rhino bars, air rams and run flat tires for the same situation. I’d say the first 3 layers in my slush pile are very creative ways to deal with being stuck in Bay Area traffic.
I have my own little slushpile — sometimes I rummage through and pick out a little piece that I still like that can be salvaged for a new story…others, well they were edited for a reason.
My slush pile is a mound of flash fictions and drabbles, all wanting to grow up into novels. One at a time, dammit!
My slush pile is a file of rejected poster, logo, and newsletter designs. And I should do something with them. But, there they sit, getting dusty (and dated), and every so often I rummage through them and find elements I can use for the next project. It’s easy to get into a design rut. Sometimes, all my projects kinda look the same O_o. That’s when I dive into the slush file, sort of like a quick dip in the pool, to remind my brain that I’ve done stuff that looks different, and I can do it again!
My personal slush pile is currently a folder named “Story Ideas – Incomplete”. It’s full of outlines for stories that I may or may not get around to writing eventually. I also have a folder of fanfic-style outlines from those times I was too lazy to create my own characters for a story. Some documents in the slush pile could turn out to be good stories, but many are just sad…
I’ve just started writing a lot more than usual, and I’ve already found I have huge piles of… oh this isn’t going to work… but I still wanna finish you… type stuff.
This was nice to read, quite a bit relieving actualy. Sign me up for the contest!
I’m so glad you wrote about this. I don’t feel nearly as guilty about all those corpses in my own morgue. I realize now they’re actually the living dead!
I have this file titled “writing” on my HD. I just keep tossing in word file after word file every time I think of something. Even if I just find a name that I like I put it there lol.
Amusing and enlightening post. I’m guilty of an amazingly large quantity of writing that didn’t make it, too. For each of my novels, I have a word document containing all the pieces I ever cut. These files inevitably end up at least 2 or 3 times longer than the whole novel. I even have this file called “Fragments of story” that is at least 1000 pages long (!).
I think the slush pile is a good thing – it lets you try stuff you normally would not in your writing – and it lets you relieve stress by just writing. Just playing can be good for you.
And I believe that you can go back and find little gems that can be expanded when you are in the right frame of the zone – and maybe even make it into a full blown story.
And for someone like me who will probably not publish anything for many years, if ever, at least I’m trying. o)
My slush pile isn’t as big as it used to be. But that’s only because I took some time off writing, so it didn’t have time to grow. Of course, now I’m making up for it and have seen the file increase in size dramatically.
Sometimes slush piles are good though because it will help “unstick” ideas that I never knew I had.
starting my blog is kind of my slush pile. In college I got so caught up with working in athletics and focusing on sports management that I forgot that i was an english major who really loved books. I started viewing reading for class and writing my papers as a chore that got in the way of my job in athletics. So i graduated and started reading again for pleasure and started my blog to document it. I am not sure its the same thing but it kinda feels like it.
My slush pile is 2 notebooks filled. Granted those notebooks are wide ruled and I write really big and sloppy. But I write every little idea I get down so I won’t forget it, but I find it hard to find the time to get on my laptop and incorporate my notes into my stories. I am so far behind that instead of finally typing up a notebook, I just started a new one. Heck, sometimes I have to constantly think of the same idea for a long time because I can’t quite find the time to write my idea in my notebook!
My slush pile consists of fanfics I’ve never completed and about ten notebooks filled with tidbits and story ideas and paragraphs half-finished I look at it but haven’t played with it in way too-long, ever since translating other people’s words has turned into a 4-year degree for me. Now that I’m almost done with it, I’ll hopefully return to my slush pile, pick something up that was worthy of becoming more and it’ll turn into something new, something my own.
Slush pile. If it got all wet then I could throw it away. I have my writing in those old fashioned black and white composition books. Never thought about ever picking them up again or that they may raise up out of there in some form maybe only a part. Thanks so much for your information!
My slush pile contains hundreds of angst-filled poems I wrote as a teenager and now cringe while reading…lol
STILL one of my favorite writers.
I’m not a writer but have on my jump drive lots of ramblings some are poems some are just thoughts. But I wouldn’t want anybody to ever see most to them.
I’m really psyched to hear about the new Jill Kismet book love this series.
I am sooo not a writer.
I guess my slush file is in my craft room.
I always pick up extra projects to work on.
Plus I have a protable hard drive that is getting
more filled every time I unload a chip.
Ah. Slush pile. Now I can go through that huge folder on my backup drive, push my fingers down deep into the compost heap, and pull out all the useless bits of dried leaves and sticks. And when I’ve sorted them out, I know what to name the VERY hidden folder I will put those nasty ugly bits in: Slush. Better than calling it “Useless Crap” – which was my old system. Ha.
I have dozens of ideas in my harddrive at any given time. Most haven’t been developed far enough to do anything with, but I like to go through the folder and take a look at which ideas I think are best and let them develop further so they are ready to be written when the WIP is done. Going through the slush pile helps me feel like there’s always something ready to be written next. The hard part is choosing which one.
I can’t think of my little bits of odds and ends as a slush pile. For me, it’s more like a treasure trove. While I won’t claim that every word is golden, there are plenty of story kernels, ideas that were bigger than my writing skills when they first came to me, but which may someday be within my reach. One of my best stories was a single line tucked in a file with a random assortment of lines, paragraphs, and fragments of scenes. It sat there, untouched for close to ten years before I realized it was time to take it out and brush the dust off, but I’m very pleased with the results.
Boy, does this sound familiar! I have a couple of crates devoted to stuff like this that I keep hoping to get back to – when I have the time!
Margay
My “slush pile” is small only a couple of stories on the hard drive.
Great topic Lili!
Wow, after reading this post, I decided to look through my old files, folders, and documents on my computer and flash drives and I’m telling you, I forgot about half of the stuff I have stashed away! Various writing and documents (plus the occasional random unidentifiable picture) that are so old, I’m no longer sure what I was trying to accomplish with the writing (lists that I started after I made a resolution to be more organized, partial short stories and lost of copy-and-pasted emails that I’ve received and thought were cute or funny. It’s a mess!). I’m going to have to go through them all, but I don’t want to. Some of the writing I can’t stand to delete, not matter how horrible or old it is. Like some of the papers from the Ice Age–AKA, various papers written for my high school classes and a few from my first year or so of college.
Slush? I guess that’s a way to look at it.
For me, it’s more like children. Yeah, the second and third children tend to be smarter and better behaved then your first child because you’ve gotten more practice as a parent. That doesn’t mean I love that first kid less, it’s just that they aren’t going to contribute as much to my retirement.
My slush pile consists of a fanfic for an old PC game called Legends of Kesmai. If you ever played this and loved it as much as I did, I may be your eternal best friend. There’re three unfinished novels (all over 60K; let no one say I haven’t done my time in the ditches) which bear a painful resemblance to Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry (which inspired me to write fantasy at all). A coming-of-age vampire novel which painfully resembles Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire Series (I want to make it clear that I have both 3-volume collector’s editions of this 6-book series and I may still love them). You know what? I love them all because I could Mary Sue to my heart’s content, the heroine was always cliched in her cool, sexy, smirking way and the hero–duh–always wanted her. Oh yes, slush pile. You are my embarrassment and my pride, and you’re wonderful.
Mine is a slush pile of half started blog posts. Sometimes they are just a title or one or two sentences. That idea I just didn’t want to forget. An observation I made while reading.
Sometimes, when I can’t think of something to post on, I’ll go through the list of drafts and find something worth finishing. Other times, it’s back to the drawing board.
My slush pile consists of ideas scribbled on index cards, half-finished stories saved on my hard drive, and snatches of conversations penned in various notebooks. Sometimes I find that if a character isn’t right for one story, she’s perfectly at home in another.
I don’t have much of a slush pile – I’m not much of an idea girl just yet. When I do have one, even the teensiest inkling of an idea, I RUN for the nearest writing instrument (pen, lipstick, whatever) and writing surface (paper, napkin, laptop) and record it, lest it flutter away into the universe. Yanno, just in case *ZOMG I never have another idea ever ever again!!!*
I have a personal slush pile, I call it my playground. It’s where I go when I need a break from my novels or my “real” work. I don’t have to edit it, it doesn’t have to make a whole lot of sense and it’s just for fun. Exactly what you described.
I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Thanks for sharing.
My slush pile/file? Eeks! I have bits and pieces, and aborted short shorts and even more aborted novels. I even have my one and only SF story, with was fun and I love those characters, but it’s lame. So lame. I have entire series of fantasy novels in it. I write for myself way too much.
Note to self: Surrender the manuscript. Now.
Heh. My slush pile goes back to when I was 9 or 10 years old and first started writing. Plenty of fanfic from the 80s and early 90s that never even saw the light of day on the internet, bad stories, bits of this and that…yeah.
BTW, I recently picked up the first Jill Kismet book, and I’m enjoying it quite a bit.
great post!!!
its my closet, its more of everything BUT my clothes LOL
and its like the blob, spreading out the door
I love how you started your post, ‘They lurk on my hard drive like zombies’ it’s so true. I have several story ideas and half writing stores in my slush pile. When I look through them I get excited about an idea again or I get frustrated ’cause that idea was as far as I went with it. But either way it’s interesting to see some of the things that have popped into my head. And I swear to myself that some of those ideas will be taken out of that slush pile and developed into a finished story. Haha, prepare yourself, my slush pile! *looks at slush pile* Or…maybe not.
Oh, dear, my slush pile. A lot of it is quite old—dating back to when I was younger and had more time to write. Everything was so derivative—definitely not plagiarized, but I borrowed heavily from my favorite television shows/books/movies. I also have a tendency to write just to amuse myself, or to explore a certain character or event—which I’ll do in various notebooks and journals, if not on the computer. I think not being afraid to create your own slush pile is an important trait for a writer; expecting everything to be or even lead to something of publishable quality is too much pressure.
I hereby commandeer the term “twinkie fiction” for…well, I don’t know what, but I want it. Cracks me up. I’m mostly nonfiction so my slush pile is flush with half-baked essays. They may be good for all the reasons you list, but I dislike unfinished business, so it makes me cranky.
Slush piles? Conjures up thoughts of dribbly, half melted bits of special-snowflake ideas.
I have a folder named “Knackers” being colloquial britglish for both the slaughterhouse, and b*ll*cks, both of which are very apropos for the contents.
Mostly it’s various never-finished horse novels that I periodically tinker with. The knackers yard is where horses go to die, see?
There are bits and pieces and random scenes, ridiculously fluffy / cracky fanfic ideas, and other cheap knockoff stuff that I started and went EEEEEK, I know where that came from.
Also posts I’ve written, and paused before posting and gone back and gone “Maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea to actually say that.” T’internet could do with a “Delay Posting?” button IMO.
I am a non-writer, so my slush pile is littered with to-do and what-if projects that have popped into my head over the years.
I’m not a writer but I like come up with story premises in my head. My ideas are never fully formed, incoherent, and only worthy of making the slush pile. I really don’t know how writers do it!
My slush pile is a small one, as I just started writing not so long ago. It was just like one day I found I really enjoyed it. I could create my own world of fantasy and just enjoy it. Like a day off from reality; and sometimes that is needed with the yelling kids, blarring tv, and barking dog. Yes, I am a mom and have pets too, which I do really love it all. There are a few different places in the slush pile. And it is growing. But as you said, it is a comfort place.
Interesting topic……I guess we all have our personal slush piles that take up space on the PC. Mine are genealogy files, pictures, letters, records, etc. Even if I copy them to disc I just can’t bring myself to delete them. Might need to check something out *g*. Or just go back and read them.
Thanks so much for this post. I’m probably the odd one out here…. I actually kinda, sorta <3 my slush pile. In a very retroactive, memory-makes-things-fonder kind of way, of course.
Yeah, my slush sucks. It’s seriously cringeworthy.
But… the more critical I am of the momentous piles of donkey doo I’ve spewed via fingertip, the better writer I become, right? I’m growing and learning?! Even if I’m just having fun?
Or, at least that’s what I tell myself.
My slush pile is full of PHAIL. It’s all stories less than five paragraphs long that I rewrite and rewrite but never really go anywhere with.
My “slush pile”…wow what can I say about it, well its big…or rather its large…ok so it’s really freaking HUGE! I’m not kidding here; let me try to give you a visual.
Imagine if you will a room, not a large room, but a decent sized room about 8×10. In this room with its nice cream colored walls and a lush (make you want to lay down and snuggle into it, beige area rug), you will see a desk and office chair; isn’t it lovely, the desk not the chair. Nice real wood (not those balsa wood desks they sell now a days) it is a deep burgandy color and looks like it has been around for forever and used lovingly, let me assure you – it has. On said desk is a laptop now this laptop is used ONLY for writing (or rather typing) stories, and story ideas…ok so I also play the occasional game of solitaire when my muse leaves me in a huff (she does that a lot, we just don’t always see eye to eye and she thinks she should always be right..Ok so maybe she is but sshhh don’t tell her I said that
), and when my mind just completely freezes up, what can I say it happens sometimes. On this computer there are at least 30 different stories in progress, some are only a few lines on a page some are 100 pages and most are somewhere in between. But this is only the beginning of my “slush pile”.
Now next to the desk you notice the book shelf, please don’t cringe it is made of balsa wood and I know doesn’t look the greatest next to the desk but hey it serves its purpose and contrary to the way it looks it really is sturdy; on said bookshelf you will notice the five 2” binders that have papers falling out of them and are crammed full, yep you guessed it those are also part of the infamous “slush pile”. Next to those binders you probably also noticed the numerous note books, there are about ten of them don’t bother counting it will probably just depress you like it does me, all those unfinished ideas *cringe*; they are all filled with stories and story ideas too. See the two boxes that used to hold copy paper under the bookshelf? Didn’t notice those at first did ya? Well those are also both about half full of ideas, and some pictures of places I have mentioned or want to mention in my different stories.
The “slush pile” has also spilled over into my purse (really a messenger bag, but hey whose counting?) I carry 2 note books that have ideas and partial stories, they also have some coloring drawings that my 3 year old has done; isn’t this one beautiful? A page that is completely green, but it’s a vibrant green, and he is proud to add to “mommy’s special books” as he calls them.
My problem I’m a finding, is that I can’t finish a story. I’m not sure if I’m afraid to finish, or what but I get so far in my stories and…BAM! “Well Hi Mr. Brick Wall, how are you today?” I have to say that in my short 25 years of life, I have only finished writing one book. I was in 5th grade and I passed it around to my friends, some loved it some hated it, but I was proud of it. Then when my family moved from Kansas to Ohio it just happened to be put into one of the 3 boxes that the movers lost. My only copy, I cried for a week over the loss. I haven’t finished a story since. Sad…ok rather pathetic, I know.
But anyway, that is my “slush pile”; oh you are ready to leave? I don’t blame you the pile gets to me sometimes too, please close the door on the way out I’m going to stay in here and try to work some more on one of these stories…maybe I’ll finish one today.
I am just a reader…so no slush pile for me. However, I do have “pile” in my head of projects or ideas that I have not gotten around to…letters to write, scrapbooks to do, and oh so many other things.
I have loved the past two weeks and am looking forward to what the future holds for Deadline Dames.
I always enjoy whatever Lillith has to say. It’s nice to know someone who is a success has a slush pile, too. I have two slush piles.
The first slush pile is for my unfinished projects. These are projects I abandoned for one reason or another. I treat these projects as though they contain a highly contagious, embarrassing, and painful disease. I wouldn’t touch these projects with someone else’s keyboard. They’re dead.
The second slush pile is for my finished and current projects. You see, when I cut things, I can’t just throw them away or delete them. I have a slush pile for each project in a folder called Scraps. Even though the stuff I put in their is so rotten it’s falling apart and stinking, I still can’t completely delete it.
And there you have it.
do a bunch of unfinished quilts count? I also have some stories that I’ve written and never finished. I don’t aspire to be a writer, but sometimes the muse calls.
My slush pile…the current stack of TBR novels sitting on my desk. I normally only like to keep 3 or 4 novels waiting in the wings, but I’ve gotten up to about 30 books and they continually glare at me.
I had slush piles since I was 11. I remember the time where I finished a few chapters and let my classmates have a look at it, and they wanted more. It was their want that kept me writing, no matter how horrible the story was. I wanted to surprise them – I wanted to surprise myself – and I finished it. [it was horrible, though].
After that, sludge piles a many have been locked in my drawer with a key only I know where it is. Writing gives me satisfaction. I’m just not sure whether other people will like my work.
Yes, I aspire to become a writer someday. Not really sure about that ambition now, though.
I don’t have slush, no not true, my homework is my slush. At this point, I have two weeks worth of slush. And my I just say, slush might just be the best word of the week. I’m going to use it this week for sure.
My computer is new… so on here I have yet to accumulate a slush pile. I have a notebook full of angsty, Never-see-the-light-of-day poems. A notebook full of random ideas and plots that would never work. And I have a plethora of ideas in my head that as soon as they pop in I have to shake my head at myself.
I look odd in public telling myself no to a very bad plot idea. But if they knew what I was thinking, they’d tell me no also. Lol.
My slush pile contains some wonderful stories, but… they are unfinished for various reasons. Might be sloppy plotting( Angel among demons), it might be that I got to entangled. It might be that I wasn’t intrested anymore. Will they ever be finished? Maybe.
I certainly have a slush pile… fortunately mine is mostly electronic, except for stuff from my very early days as a writer.
I’m actually pleased to know all writers have one!
But it makes me feel so much better to know that I had to write all that… yes ALL that… in order to know how to write the stuff I’m writing today.
Ha! I’ve got two of these
One is on the paper, which I started accumulating when I was 12-13, another is moving with me from computer to computer since I was 17… It’s completely embarassing and so naive, but I still hope to use the ideas someday. So thumbs up for the slush piles!
My slush pile is all the ideas floating around in my head that I haven’t been able to flesh out into stories. Hopefully, they’ll see the light of day eventually.
This was a very enlightning reading. I knew about that aspect of a writer life: the piles of unwanted or not-so-good manuscripts they put on hold for a better time, but I never knew the name you guys gave it.
Slush seems a very apropriate name!
It makes me want to poke around and see what is so wrong with those stories. Afterall they can also be seen as secret stories that no one will ever see. Oh, what joy it would be to actually be the first person to read it ^_^
As a writer, it is nice to know others have their own slush pile hanging around the computer (or in notebooks–I have many of those). I never thought about it as a slush pile before, but I guess that’s exactly what it is. Great post!
I had never heard of a “slush pile” before this. After reading your blog, I went back to look at my old stories from high school, my WIPs I haven’t touched in years, and my old fanfiction. It reminded me that I really should print off my writing because I think my computer has eaten some of it. Even if it is bad, I don’t want to delete it because I spent time and energy on it. And you’re right, I might be able to take pieces of it and use it later on something else.
I hadn’t thought of my own personal slush pile either. Most of what I’ve written doesn’t get read by too many people either. I live in the wrong place for the stuff I like to write / read.
Moving slush piles from computer to computer is interesting especially when it is not your own slush. I had to move stuff for my DH. I do the tech stuff & he does the Honey-do fix-its.
I don’t know if I saved all the right slush piles but I haven’t heard any complaints so far.
Someone’s slush is another’s what???
fascinating look into the mind of an experienced author.
i don’t have aslushpile. a sign of my still aspiring status, maybe…
I wonder what other writers or other people in different fields call their ‘slush pile’? I’m sure people have them and I’m sure some of them could be extremely funny.
Great idea for a post!
My slush pile comes in various formats. There is the journal that I started in my teens. Haven’t looked at that for awhile. Then there’s the notebooks that I started in my twenties after I got married. Those have some ideas and writings that I like to re-read. Gives me a sense of how far I’ve come and how I’ve changed and what is still the same.
And lastly there is the slush pile on my computer. It’s smaller, not as many stories but they tend to be longer than my earlier work. Maybe as I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten more focused? Possible.
Oh wow, I totally feel you. I hve a slush pile that takes up 3 drawers and two cupboards.
But, yes every now and then you can go through 1 or 10 and possibly come out with a new (old) work of art.
This is my forst time on the site and I have to say you did an awesome job with it. I was just at a book signing for Devon Monk and I have to say she is an amazing women. She gave me some incredible advice and I thyank her dearly for her time. I wish her the best of success in her writing career and life! Thanks Devon! Tara
My slush pile has it’s own gmail addy. I can’t stand the sight of it, so I’ve forced myself to forward for future creative pillage.
I have a heavy delete button finger, so actually forwarding the work (crap) instead of killing it is huge for me.
Oh yeah, I have my own personal slush pile ranging from really awful stories I penned in notebooks in college to notes for things I’d like to write eventually, to things that are actually pretty good that I should finsih…one day, lol. Glad to know I’m not alone.
My personal slush file is filled with lobs of vampire and werewolf supernatural goodies. Some of it I am willing to dig out if it works, but am perfectly happy keeping all my goodies to myself too.
My personal slush pile has several short stories and poems that I would not want to let others read.
My slush pile is half-started knitting projects that stalled and died for whatever reason. It hides in three different baskets around the house. I’ve got them mixed with the other projects in the hope that one day I’ll pick them up, realize that all I needed was a bit of frogging and viola! a beautiful project.
It happens just often enough that I’m still hopeful.
Mmm. Very bad Twinkie fiction.
[...] The Personal Slush Pile – All authors have one… unpublished and unpublishable works they’ve written over the years. But what can you glean from them? [...]