Like many novelists I have a ton of manuscripts that I wrote as I was learning the process that probably should never see the light of day — or the eyes of other readers. They were my writing training wheels, once I got to take them off my bike (or my writing, in this case) I shouldn’t have to go back and use them again.
I think those stories represent the best that I could do at that time, and for many reasons most of those stories and the characters that lived in them no longer work for me.
There are, however, one or two novels that were written not too early in my career, but that definitely have potential to appeal to some readers. The dilemma I now face is do I revise those old works and make them reader-friendly? Do I use the writing and editing skills that I spent years honing to see if I can re-establish the magic I felt when I wrote those initial books? Or should spend my writing hours continuing to create new pieces and leave the past in the past …
What do you think? Are there some manuscripts that deserve a second chance at a readership?