🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan23.053309.14920@cbfsb.cb.att.com>,
djd@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (david.j.daulton) wrote:
> 
> Regarding:
> >> As far as using Heinlein's rule, I wonder if anyone has ever tried it, with
> >> the added twist that when you finish a piece, if it is not worth submitting,
> >> then throw it away ...
> >> 
> >> Any takers?
> 
> And the reply:
> >
> >Oh, God!  Throw away one of my children?!
> >
> 
> This calls to mind another statement that (as I recall) came from Heinlein,
> that "Writing for the trunk is masturbation."  So rather than one's children,
> one would be throwing away...well, being a polite person, at least in mixed
> company (and this certainly is a mixed company), I think I won't complete
> that thought.
> 
> Dave Daulton, Columbus, Ohio

As my teenage daughter would say, "E-e-w-w-w!  G-r-r-o-s-s, Dave!"

Seriously, though, I do think even "unworthy" pieces  and
unused snippets of text are often worth saving.    Those rejected
 bits and pieces create a "journal" of unused ideas, dialogue, impressions,
and images.   For instance, that bit of suspenseful dialogue in the story
that
was written as a throwaway for some creative writing class can become
the basis of a "mature" writer's next story.

 Also, I think  that when many  of us first look over a newly
completed project, we judge ourselves far too harshly.
If, immediately upon completion, I threw away everything  I felt
was  flawed, nothing would *ever* be submitted much less published.
 Amazing how some stuff seems so much better with a few
(days/weeks/months) perspective.  If it was worth writing in the first
place
(and assuming it was written at some reasonable level of competence)
 it's probably worth looking at again and working through the flaws.  

Worst case, you can always look back through your file
of discards and say to yourself, "Gee, have I  improved!"

P.S. to Heinlein worshippers:  IMHO, some of his later stuff would
have had substantially more  impact if some editor had had the guts (or
the authority) to say to the great man, "Look, I *know* you're famous now,
 but that doesn't mean everything that comes from your pen  is sacred.
Let's  cut some of the philosophical  musing, and
 tighten this  plot up a little, OK?"   [Please, folks, no flames!
 It's just an opinion!]

Maureen (a.k.a. Jane)

==================================================
Maureen Tan                                                                
                            Who dares,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign                           Wins.
mtan@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
=======================================================
The opinions expressed here are undoubtedly *not* those of my employer!