Don't be afraid to return to an old idea!

You keep coming up with new ideas. Every time you sink your teeth into a good story, another idea comes along and sweeps you off your feet like a new romance, only for you to realise that after all, it wasn't that great. But you don't want to return to the old ideas because that wouldn't be loyal to your new ones, your ever changing creativity, right?

WRONG!

For a very long time, I hated going back to old ideas because I didn't think I could ever get them right if it didn't work the first time or if I just never got round to finishing it. It's usually just down to me being distracted by a newer, seemingly better tale to tell. You have to remember that once upon a time, your old ideas were the new, shiny ones that keep popping up. And the new, shiny ones will soon become the old dusty ones you forgot about. No matter what you say, those new ideas will keep arriving and the old ones will be slowly gathering dust in the corner.

It's time to give the old ideas a polish, get them out and look them over. Recently, I wanted to write but I didn't want to carry on just yet with my current projects. Instead of dragging a new story into the mix, I decided to go back to an old story I'd finished in 2010 for Camp Nanowrimo which had lost its last two chapters. I decided, how about I write up those last two chapters again - finally - and revise the story. Now that I'm looking back over it again, it's better than I remember it being. At the time, I thought to myself, this is the story I want to publish first and now I remember why. Those old ideas are often the gems - the little diamonds of stories that came along before you turned into a haggard, jaded writer monster.

Lydia