Going Back to An Old Love

I should have posted this on Valentine's Day. No, I'm not leaving the husband (the house reno hasn't done us in yet!). The old love I'm talking about is the unfinished wip that I dumped last summer to work on the current wip. Now, before you go assuming I'm a fickle writer, hear me out. Sometimes, going back to an old love is the right thing to do - especially when the current one is fighting you day after day.

When I left the old love, I was really struggling. I wanted to stay but I had concerns about the wip's beginning. Basically, I knew it started off in the wrong place but I wasn't sure how I could re-start it the right way. And we all know that if a love affair starts off on the wrong foot it's never going to settle down into a real groove, is it? There's always going to be a sense that something is wrong, that something needs to be fixed and until it's fixed the love affair will go nowhere. So I left it. Maybe I should have stayed, worked it out with my old love but when the current wip beckoned with its perfect beginning that just spilled out so easy and uncomplicated, I have to admit it, my head was turned. And it's not to say that my time with the new wip has been wasted. I still love it too. But right now, I need some space. I have unfinished business with my old love.

And you know what? When I went back, we fixed the problem. We're now starting off on the right foot and I remember why I loved that wip so much at the time. Why I loved those characters and that story. All that love was being overshadowed by a beginning that had too much old baggage. My old wip needed to shed its history and "get to the point" right away. And no more getting caught up in other people's stories. My old love has figured out who he is and what he wants to say. Now I'm working with it instead of trying to pull the story out of him. We're communicating so well right now!

So, don't judge. Sometimes an old love can be a true love. You just have to be patient enough to give it a second chance.