Rediscovering Goldie and Red: A Writer’s Hidden Treasure
I was digging through old files, looking for a story I’d written about a year ago, when I saw a document titled Goldie and Red. I stared at it. What? What in the world was that?
I opened the file, and boom. It was like opening a chest and finding treasure.
Right there on the screen was a story I had completely forgotten writing. The voice was lively. The characters sparkled. The writing? Actually good. It was fun. And I had zero memory of putting it together.
That kind of thing happens all the time to writers. We’re always creating, writing, revising, jotting down ideas on napkins or in half-forgotten files. Sometimes we run into fans who want to talk about a character we wrote years ago, and while we remember the story, the details are fuzzy.
Once a story goes out into the world, we move on. There’s always another idea knocking on the door. And when we don’t use them right away, those ideas get stored, sometimes as quick notes, sometimes as full beginnings, waiting for us to rediscover them.
That’s what Goldie and Red turned out to be, a beginning of a story was really just a long, enthusiastic note to myself about two characters and their dynamic. When rereading it, I fell in love with them all over again.
I’ve got a lot on my plate right now, but Goldie and Red has officially jumped to the “soon” pile. Because honestly? That kind of spark, that kind of joy, is why I write in the first place.
And when you find buried treasure, you don’t just leave it in the dirt.
Have you ever rediscovered an old project, idea, or half-written story that felt like striking gold? I’d love to hear about it. Comment on this post.
Let’s swap treasure tales.
Deborah Daughetee
Deborah Daughetee has spent most of her career writing and producing such television shows as Murder, She Wrote; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; and Touched by an Angel. She has published short stories in magazines and anthologies. In addition, she has also written audio dramas set in the world of the 60’s classic television show, Dark Shadows, including her Scribe award nominated, The Lost Girl. Most recently, Debbie created Kymera Press, a comic book publishing company that supports women in comics. She writes the comic series, Gates of Midnight which was winner of the 2019 Irwin Award and publishes the Bram Stoker Award Winning Mary Shelley Presents Tales of the Supernatural.
