Do you have a security blanket?
What's YOUR Security Blanket...
My daughters both had them as babies. Their “B’s” we called them—shiny, pink, and silky on one side, the other, soft, and velvety. Every day, they dragged them around the house. Every night, they snuggled them in.
One time, on our way to San Diego, we discovered we’d left my oldest daughter’s “B” at home—she hadn’t noticed yet, but it was only a matter of time. I distracted her with games of peekaboo until we reached the nearest Target, which had one left in stock. The “clean B” as it was dubbed, served as a logical substitute. We realized at that point that it didn’t matter if it was THE “B” as long as it looked familiar. That was enough.
Therefore, when DD#2 was born, she was given her own “B”—this one with raised velvety dots, and the silky side. DD#2 had “Bumpy B” and nothing works for her better than her own. We bought three.
Even still, when they get sick, or a bad owie, nothing can soothe away the tears so much as the “B.”
But they don’t need them anymore. Not really.
I’ve been home with them for months, writing, parenting, and cleaning out closets, drawers, trunks, and so on. While doing so, I stumbled across my trunk of forgotten yellow notepads, type written pages, and early story starts. This was my proving ground. Where I pounded out every cliché in the book, worked out predictable plots, and hokey characters. I practiced story, dialog, setting, narrative, each one drowning in backstory, and breaking pretty near every rule in the book.
They’re my security blanket.
There might be smidgens of salvageable story in there somewhere. But, probably not. Will I ever get rid of them? No. Probably not.
My husband doesn’t understand, but that doesn’t really matter. They don’t take up much room, all neatly stacked, in the trunk under my printer where my now MUCH more polished manuscripts jet out on a fairly regular basis.
They’re proof of my path. And, my safety net if the stories dry up.
Do you have a security blanket?
A manuscript that you lovingly rework?
Even more, are you willing to step away from that tired, cliché, reworked to death story, and break new ground?
~Ashley
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Twitter: silverwriter
says:
The Only had a pink bear, the body knitted and the face fuzzy. We still have one up in the attic and she just graduated from college. You never know when all the others might get lost! (Yes, she still has the other three. The original should be in a biohazard bag!)
I had a white one I dragged everywhere! My mother told me the dog ate it. Twenty years later, when I was a court bailiff, one of my mother’s best friends served on a jury. She brought me “Bink.” I almost cried! I still have it, wrapped lovingly in tissue paper in the bottom of a cedar chest.
I suppose I have my writing security blankets, too. There’s a file drawer filled with false starts, bad poetry from college, a few finished manuscripts I still hope will find a home someday. I’m not sure it’s a security blanket, the the WIP I’m currently revising is certainly the book of my heart. I don’t want to let these characters go and hope that I can get their story told with a much better handle on craft than when I originally wrote it, yet without losing the essence of them and the plot. It’s tough.
Great post today, Ashley!
As a confirmed ‘saver,’ I have boxes of things from my past, all lovingly bundled up for ‘someday.’ Dolls and books and clothes…all of which I justified keeping in case my kids would want them. [They didn't, for the record!]. Now I’m saving them for the day my grandkids will want them.
Thinking of them as my ‘security blanket’ is a new way to look at it for me. [And all the more reason to keep them when hubby starts griping about cleaning out the storage space!]
~ Melissa
Twitter: KrisKennedy
says:
Ash~
Oh, what a great topic and tie-in to mommydom!
I have many files of things I’ve cut from mss, but am not willing to totally discard. Do I go back and pull them out? You bet! I put them in the new ms, for a draft cycle or two, then, lo and behold, I usually pull them out again. LOL.
But they serve a purpose, even if it’s not becoming the words in the final version of the story. They jump-start me when I’m stuck. Then I lovingly peel off the overlapped areas of words and ideas and keep the new stuff. It’s like yogurt starter. Ha!
Twitter: wiremamma
says:
I think the phrase is murdered darlings, Kris.
All those little bits of prose we cannot part with… but bring out and lovingly cuddle with to remind of times when creative fervor was in full swing!
Thanks for chiming in, you all! I’m spending the weekend with my own Mama – and grandma/grandad are watching the kids while we enjoy a special weekend…
*bliss*
See you soon!
~Ashley
Twitter: None
says:
As a confirmed ‘saver,’ I have boxes of things from my past, all lovingly bundled up for ‘someday.’ Dolls and books and clothes…all of which I justified keeping in case my kids would want them. [They didn't, for the record!]. Now I’m saving them for the day my grandkids will want them.
Thinking of them as my ‘security blanket’ is a new way to look at it for me. [And all the more reason to keep them when hubby starts griping about cleaning out the storage space!]
~ Melissa
Twitter: wiremamma
says:
Good luck with that! I think it matters to share what you love with your kids, grandkids, as it is YOUR story. Thanks for commenting and have a great day.