STORIES ON STANDBY

This week, my creative task isn’t actually writing.

It’s reading and rummaging!

I’m going through my fiction projects, opening old files, rereading half-written chapters, rediscovering notes I’d completely forgotten about and generally peering into the slightly chaotic cupboard where my stories live.

And there are rather a lot of them.

There are books waiting for revision.

There are first drafts waiting to be finished.

There are stories that have a beginning, an ending and a rather suspicious gap in the middle.

And then there are those scraps of notes: characters, settings, snippets of dialogue, intriguing little ideas that have been buzzing around my head, waiting patiently for their turn.

The interesting thing about returning to old work is that sometimes you immediately know why you abandoned it.

And sometimes…something might catch my eye.

A character suddenly feels alive again.

A plot problem no longer seems quite so impossible.

A sentence makes you think, Oh… I remember where I was going with this.

And suddenly a story that has been sitting quietly in the shadows starts tapping on my shoulder.

So that’s my challenge this week:

To listen to my inner voice.

To see which story still has something to say.

Which one wants another chance.

Which one is ready to pull me back into its world and, perhaps, finally make it to the finish line.

I have no idea yet which one it will be.

But somewhere amongst the folders, unfinished manuscripts and scribbled ideas…

One of them may call me.

I just need to work out which one.

Sally x

Sally Somerton - Island Writer

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