Going over old words

Recently when I've had chance rather then continuing my present writing I've been spending time going over older writing that I've never managed to complete due to time restraints or because I wasn't happy with the story. This has meant that I have been going through work that in some cases is almost seven years old!

I have been happily surprised to realise that although I still had a voice back then my more recent work has a stronger voice which I am now more able to bring to the old works. Quite often when you're writing you can become to close to the scenes you are working on and way to close to the characters, so the advantage of going back to older work means that enough time has gone past and I am no longer close to them. This has lead to some interesting surprises where I am reading the work and not knowing what's about to happen...it's certainly led to some interesting conversations with my other half. Not all of the stories I have written can be saved, in fact looking back over some I read them with confusion and no understanding of where I was planning on going with it all, however I have found a few pieces that I think I could polish and turn into something much better then they are now - so watch this space!