A love letter to half‑finished drafts 🍰
& A weekly‑ish ritual for coming back to whatever you're working on
I submitted a novel manuscript to an Irish literary agent very many years ago, and the only way to get in touch with him was by phone.
I posted the manuscript, all heavy and delicious in its envelope, and waited and waited, and heard nothing, and decided to call.
We chatted.
He said something I’ll always remember: a novel is like a cake. It needs time to rise.
He was politely telling me I’d sent him a half-baked story, and he was right. I put it away, and years later I came back. That manuscript is my working draft for Welcome to Rathkill Island.
Reminder:
Returning to old pages, drafts, and paintings is part of the magic, not a failure to finish.
Each time you come back, you bring a slightly different version of yourself, new colours on your palette, and a few extra charms in your pocket. If you let the page lead and keep a loose ritual of returning, your work might just quietly reveal what you love, what you dodge, and what keeps humming under the surface.
You start to see what you can’t stop circling around. Feel free to speed up my circling and buy me a coffee.
🐦⬛ 🍂 🍄 🌙✨
How to build a weekly-ish creative ritual
These prompts walk you through choosing an old page, really looking at it, adding a small change, and noticing what that teaches you about your work. (the number 3 kept returning…is it trying to tell me something) 🔮🔮
A step‑by‑step ritual for revisiting old work:
Choose one old page, draft, or artwork to revisit today. This is your experiment in how to return to old work without starting from scratch.
Look at it for 3 minutes.
Write down 3 things you notice now that you did not notice before. For example: marks that get repeated, or colours that come back or repeating adjectives. Or whatever helps you.
Add 3 new elements: a sentence, colour, image, stitch, mark, or question.
Ask yourself: alright, will I stay here and start with this, or will I go and come back later?
This is a companion post for an article called Letting the Page Lead: Returning to Old Pages with New Eyes. There are more in-depth ideas & techniques there, so take a look if you wanna dive.
Let me know how you get on with your ritual building! I always love to hear from you 🐌🐌🐌.
Signing off,
Jessica
