It’s no secret that I’m a writer. I’ve been writing stories as a hobby since I was ten. (Arguably earlier, but I started writing fantasy at that age, so I like to count from there!) Since that time, it’s been my dream to write a published novel. I’ve pursued publication for some of my manuscripts, but so far, that particular goal remains just a dream.

I finished one of my favorite manuscripts a few years ago. This particular story went through tons of rewrites, because I loved it so much and wanted to make it as perfect as possible. Sadly, my skills weren’t quite up to the job, and I ended up moving on to the next story. I haven’t abandoned that manuscript completely, but it remains on the back burner for now.

Some of my closest friends fell in love with that manuscript, though, much to my delight. They begged to read the sequel, which remains unwritten. Unfortunately, I can’t justify writing a sequel to a manuscript that might go through more edits in the future. But it did occur to me that I could try telling a new story, set in the same world. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a particular character from that original story would make an excellent protagonist. She also happens to be a favorite character of my readers, so I knew they’d like to read a story about her. As an added bonus, the process will help me flesh out this world that I still love so much.

I’m about 5,000 words into the manuscript, and having a great time. So why did I want to share this? For one thing, yesterday happened to be this character’s birthday, so I’ve had her on my mind a lot. (Yeah, I’m the kind of writer who knows my characters’ birthdays… At least I didn’t bake a cake?)

More importantly, though, I wanted to assure my fellow writers that none of your writing time is wasted. Maybe the manuscript you’re slaving over won’t be published right away. Maybe it will later on, when you have the tools to revise it, or the energy to do a major rewrite. But either way, you can use what you’ve learned in your future stories. And maybe you’ll come up with some ideas–or a particularly persistent character–who can be featured in a story of their own someday.

On a related note, I sometimes joke with people about this character. I call her my taskmaster, because I can easily imagine her scolding me for not getting my work done. I distinctly remember one day, when I was really worried about the story I was writing. It was too complicated, I thought, and I didn’t have the skills or the talent to pull it off. (Well, if I had said this out loud, it would’ve sounded a lot more like whining… “Why is writing so hard?” “I’ll never be good enough to write this story!” And so on.) Then I heard my character’s retort in my head, and it was so perfect I wrote it down.

“Well then, we’ll just have to rise to the occasion, won’t we?”

This is probably the best writing advice I have. Writing is hard. It doesn’t get easier, as far as I can tell. But good writers keep writing, and keep trying to rise to the occasion, no matter what.