Do you do this?

[black ink]

I have several pages of writing that don't belong anywhere in my story. It's a compilation of false starts and dead ends that I can't bear to delete in case I want to use them (the wording or the ideas) later on. I'm kind of irritated by them (they skew my word count, for one;)) but I'm paranoid that if I ditch them, I'll regret it later. What do you do with your wayward words?

[scarletpeaches]

Paste them into another word.doc and save it as my 'Darlings Graveyard'.

[jhtatroe]

I have a file called "False Starts." You never know when they might come in handy.

[jdparadise]

Hard drive space is so cheap as to be almost free.

For each chapter I'm working on, I have three files:

Chapter X - brainstorming
Chapter X - outtakes
Chapter X

[davids]

Paste them into another word.doc and save it as my 'Darlings Graveyard'.

A great idea-why would anyone do anything other than that-unless of course you are short of something!!!!

[scarletpeaches]

Ah davids, my one and only lobster chum. :D How sweet thou art, with thy crustacean shell, and dare I say it, a passionate heart 'neath those meaty chunks of goodness?

[black ink]

Such great and simple solutions! Thank you :)

[CaroGirl]

I put stuff like that in a file called "Miscellaneous" in the same folder as my WIP, along with files called: "Query Letter1", "Query Letter2", "Query Letter3" (you get the idea), "Title Ideas", "Synopsis" (attempts 1, 2 & 3). Who knows, maybe some of those scenes will end up in a short story or another novel someday.

[kristie911]

I always have some really great phrases, paragraphs or just words that I would love to be able to use but invariably they don't fit in my story. So, I do have a file to save them in...you never know when you might want them for something else!

[Varthikes]

I put things like that either at the end of the story beyond the point I'm working on or put them all in a document designated 'scrap'.

[AndreaGS]

I just let them float around on my hard drive. If I want I can go back and read them and think "Oh, that would have been lovely in my story". And, who knows? Maybe something similar will work in another piece of writing.

[Southern_girl29]

In my current novel, I had a ton of info dumps that needed to be in there, just not all at once. I created a file called it quotes and filled it with the dialogue I had to cut. When I need something from the file, I went back to it, but you know, I found I didn't really need as much of it as I thought I did. I still have about seven pages in that file. I don't plan on deleting it though.

[sunna]

I have a Bits & Pieces file for every WIP; some get used, or rehashed and used, and others just sit and sulk at me.

[Linda Adams]

I make lots of backups to my second hard drive--daily if I'm doing extensive work on the project, and then at the end of the month, it all goes on a CD. So if I don't need a file any more because it no longer applies, it'll be on one of the backup disks, and I delete it from the hard drive. I've never had to go back after anything though.

[AJ Clare]

I file them. None of them are wasted, I find. Even if I never fit them in anywhere they're still part of the process of character development.

[Julie Worth]

I have several pages of writing that don't belong anywhere in my story. It's a compilation of false starts and dead ends that I can't bear to delete in case I want to use them (the wording or the ideas) later on. I'm kind of irritated by them (they skew my word count, for one;)) but I'm paranoid that if I ditch them, I'll regret it later. What do you do with your wayward words?

I delete without worrying about it, and every once in a while I save my WIP to a new folder. Under each book folder, I eventually have dozens of consecutively numbered folders. If I decide I want something I deleted, I just have to go back far enough to find it. Not that I do, but it serves a psychological role, so I don't feel I'm deleting anything permanently. (And finding those old words is a snap once you have Google desktop installed.)

[LeslieB]

Perhaps you could try this method...

http://scott-lynch.livejournal.com/187661.html

[Stijn Hommes]

Save it. It may not fit in this project, but you'd kick yourself if you know you forgot one of the things your character said now would be a great quote in another story.

[deathwizard]

I leave them in until the second draft. Sometimes a false start really is good writing just lacking the proper transition.

[Dancre]

Paste them into another word.doc and save it as my 'Darlings Graveyard'.

I have one of those. Comes in handy.

kim

[Tia Nevitt]

I just put them in other Word docs within the same directory. I give it a meaningful name so I can find it again if necessary. Once I cut a scene, it usually doesn't make it back in the book. However, it is fun to go back and do word counts to see exactly how much I cut.

I have already cut about 28,000 words from my last novel and am contemplating a major rewrite, where I would cut about 50,000 more words.

[Cassidy]

i find saving them in another file (darlings' graveyard is nice, btw) makes cutting them out less painful. i rarely end up using them, but at least i know i can bring them back from the dead if i change my mind.

[Pagey's_Girl]

I took eight or ten little scenelets I'd written that I couldn't work into anything longer, tied them together with some faux interview dialogue and viola!, a cute little short piece spoofing one of those VH1 "Behind The Music" kind of specials.

ETA: It helps of your MC is a former musician if you're going to do that, though. :)

EETA - IF, not of. Sheesh...

[freshpencils]

I do it all the time. I save them in a "Cuts" folder.

Course if I ever want them again, they'd be almost impossible to find as the folder is not organized in any way. The cuts are saved with a date and the name of the work they were cut from.

Still, if I'm willing to look through them all, I'll eventually find what I'm looking for.

[Anne Lyle]

Me too. I use Scrivener, and in my Research folder I have a sub-folder called 'Cutting Room Floor' where I dump unneeded scenes, etc. This has turned out to be vital, since during the current revision process I realised my seemingly superfluous opening scene is actually more crucial to the plot than I thought, and will need resurrecting. Quick drag'n'drop, and I'm done :)