What should you do with your desk drawer novels? You know the ones. Those manuscripts that you run through your critique group, pitch to agents and editors, and attempt to rewrite a dozen times. Those stories that remain in your desk drawer or in your laptop, and never find their way out into the world.

A few members of my writing group repeatedly workshop their desk drawer novels. They make changes and tighten up their prose. As someone who has read these stories, I can attest that, though they morph, most don’t really grow significantly. Most don’t become better. They just become different — different desk drawer novels.

So, what do we do when tweaking and rewriting lead to a circular cycle of desk drawer to critique group and no publication? Do we toss our manuscript? Do just admit that what we’re dealing with is a practice novel and kill our novel-length darling?

I think the answer to this question depends on how much you love your story. I wrote a magical realism novel about talking glass bottles that no one seems to like but me. I wrote it during one of my uber creative periods, and I didn’t care about publishing it.  Granted, it has major issues. It’s too long, over 130,00 words. And it’s filled with telling and passive voice, and when I try to make the prose more active, it simply doesn’t work. But because I love the characters and the world, flawed and all, I will someday self-publish it.

But my glass bottle story is an outlier. Most of my other desk drawer novels are practice novels that I wrote when I first began writing. I stack them on top of each other in a file cabinet in my garage, and whenever I feel intimidated or stuck, I look at them. They remind me of how much work I’ve put into honing my writing craft, and this makes the blank page less intimidating. So, I keep them.

I know what you’re thinking, cause I’m thinking it too. That I’m a selfish writer. I’m keeping stories that only I love and hoarding practice novels because they reassure me. Aren’t we as writers supposed to focus on target audiences and market trends, not ourselves? Shouldn’t we toss novels that don’t meet publishing standards?

I say, “No!” The way I see it, desk drawer novels are a part of our writing journey, and because of that, I believe they’ve earned a coveted spot in our cabinet or laptop, even if that’s where they remain.

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed my post. What do you do with your practice novels? Do you keep or toss them? Do you keep tweaking novels, year after year? I’d love to know!