So... if you write every day, how long does it take before you write something that you've written already? A thought that you've already had, or an idea that's occurred before only to be forgotten? I've done that before, started writing a story only to realize that I had begun to rewrite a story that I had scrapped years before. It's actually a story that might eventually get put in this blog. Some of you have heard this story before, which actually fits with my premise quite well.
The story was a western of sorts, though it quickly became something... a little different. When I first wrote it, I forced myself to tone it down for the English assignment it was. It was the first time I had ever really written a story, and once it was done and I had discovered my unexpected talent, I began to forget that first western. Three years later I wrote another western, this time pulling out all the quirky stops. I was almost halfway through before I realized that the character was a recreation of that first character, an improvement that came almost accidentally. He isn't quite my favorite character, but he's certainly among them and he found his beginning in the rebirth of a story I had scrapped. So, I ask again? How long does it take before a writer will write something twice by accident? I don't mean stories really, I mean thoughts, posts, journal entries, anything you might what to call it. And when it happens, is it a bad thing? Or is it a chance to make an unfinished idea better?
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