The Charles Schulz Museum, Santa Rosa, California
When my husband and I took our first trip to wine country, we left LAX, hopped in our rental car (after waiting two hours in line to pick it up, of course), and made a beeline for our first stop: The Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.
If you’re at all a Peanuts fan, I cannot recommend this museum enough. You get to learn about Schulz’s life, the history of the comic strip, and his inspiration for some of the recurring themes.
You also get to see what Snoopy looked like as a puppy.
But one of my favorite elements, of course, was the look into Schulz’s creative process. One thing that really stood out to me was just how quick he was to “kill his darlings.” He warmed up every day with quick sketches, which he considered “probably the best things I can do,” but guess what he did with them at the end of the day?
He threw them away.
If you’re like, me, the thought of all those Peanuts doodles getting tossed makes you real sad. Even if they weren’t fit for final comics, they were probably valuable inspiration for other work! Or, at least, an incredible catalog of what was going on in Schulz’s mind as he worked.
Fortunately, his secretary realized what was happening and started fishing them out of the trash every day, taking them home, ironing them flat, and saving them for posterity.
And guess what? Your scrap writing is worthy of the same treatment.
As writers, we invest countless hours into crafting our stories, laboring over every word and phrase. So of course it can feel impossible to accept that some of our ideas won’t fit into our finished books. It can feel impossible to “kill our darlings.”
Well, I’m not on board with killing your darlings.
I don’t like the phrase, I don’t like its implications, and I don’t like discounting authors’ hard work like that.
But I do know that sometimes our manuscripts are better off when we delete those carefully crafted paragraphs, scenes, or even entire characters. And that’s why I’m a big believer in following in Charles Schulz’s secretary’s steps and saving those excised pieces to create a scrap pile.
📜 Trimming a beloved moment from draft thirty-two of your novel? Move it to the scrap pile.
📜 Realized your protagonist’s bestie isn’t the right sidekick? Move him to the scrap pile.
📜 Frustrated with a scene that just isn’t working? Move it to the scrap pile.
Don’t just trash them, but save them in a folder on your desktop (or on your desk, if you’re working with real, old-fashioned paper) for future use.
Here are three ways your scrap pile can be invaluable for your writing life:
Inspiration When You Need it Most
Your discarded scraps—reviewed with the fresh perspective that comes from a new context and a little time—may just contain the spark of creativity you need to get your next project off the ground. These fragments you’re cutting from today’s work in progress contain unique ideas, dynamic characters, and immersive settings, and just because they don’t fit the current story, that doesn’t mean they’re not valuable.
When you’re feeling stuck down the road, you’ll sift through them, and something will catch your eye. Maybe it will be a concrete concept, or maybe it will just be a reminder of that passion and enthusiasm you’re struggling to find. Regardless, your treasure trove of scrap scenes and character sketches and pretty sentences may be just the key to freeing you from your writer’s block.
Binders Full of Characters
That character that wasn’t the right foil for today’s protagonist may be the hero in your next story. That magic system that didn’t quite jive in your last novel may be perfect for the next. When a dynamic characters or world-building element doesn’t fit within your specific story, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad character or a useless bit of world-building. It just means it hasn’t found the right story yet. By keeping these scraps, you can build yourself a library of vibrant characters and rich settings to mine for future projects.
Your Personal Archives
Have you ever dreamed of having your writing archives in a university library? (No? Just me?) Saving your scraps is, in a lot of ways, like building out your archives—or making scrapbooks of your writing life. Your writing style and voice and talent are ever-evolving, and when you hold onto your content that’s not quite ready for the page, you give your future self a fabulous opportunity to look back on your growth.
It may feel a little cringey at first, like looking through your middle school diary, but comparing your older, discarded writing to your current, publication-ready work can give you a unique perspective and a new appreciation for all the hard work you’ve put in and the challenges you’ve overcome over the years.
Next time some piece of your work in progress just isn’t working, don’t let sunk cost fallacy trick you into leaving it where it doesn’t belong. But don’t kill your darlings either! Pluck them out and tuck them away somewhere safe to use another day.
Do you keep a scrap pile? How does it come in handy in your writing life?