Post #254 April 26, 2021 “Copy, Paste and Modify?” Two weeks ago, I started the first draft of a new novel. It’s called The Farpool: Plague and it’s a continuation of my original The Farpool Stories. In this novel, I have been making liberal use of text and story elements from the earlier tales. In other words, I’ve been doing copy, paste and modifying things I’ve already written. Reusing text from previous stories, not all of them Farpool related. I do have over 60 stories online, with an approximate word count of nearly 5 million words. Surely, it’s okay to steal from myself to move a new story along by re-using old text? To answer this question, I’ve listed the pros (Yes) and cons (No) of this move below. You can decide for yourself whether I should be doing this. YES: 1. I don’t want to re-invent the wheel. If there is an existing scene that might work in a new story with some modifications, why not use it? 2. Copying and pasting with modifications can increase my productivity, literally, the number of pages I can complete in a day. 3. Often, I’ve found that only basic modifications are needed 4. When I do this, the effort sometimes suggests additional plot elements or complications that I hadn’t considered. 5. Re-using from earlier tales in my original series helps with continuity. NO: 1. The reader may have seen and read this text before. Re-using old text and re-purposing it could end up confusing a reader, if they recall it from somewhere else. 2. The modifications may turn out to be extensive. The new scene could be easier if I just write it fresh. 3. Writing a new scene from scratch can keep your head and your literary engine engaged and mentally in the story better. This is often underappreciated as a tool for getting pages and stories done. I have a host of tips and tricks for keeping my head in the game, like ending a day’s writing right in the middle of a sentence so as to jigger my brain back into the story universe the next day by the necessity of completing the sentence. Try it. It works. 4. Text copied and pasted and modified from another story may have unintended or unexpected effects on a reader’s understanding of your current story. The tone may be just enough different, or jarring enough to cause the reader to step back and say “Whoa…what’s happened here?” If this causes the reader to suspend their belief in the story universe, then you’re losing the reader and you never want to do anything to cause that. Ultimately, re-using old text in a new story is a judgment call. Your call should be based on… 1. The time and effort required 2. Analyzing and balancing the Yes and No factors highlighted above. 3. Doing what’s best to create an engaging and compelling story 4. An understanding that writers sometimes get a little too enamored with their own words, to the detriment of the greater story. Don’t fall into that trap. If the old text works in a new story or can be made to work, do it. Otherwise, write it new. The next post to The Word Shed comes on May 3, 2021. See you then. Phil B.