So you wrote a book, and it didn’t turn out quite the way you’d hoped … ie it’s a big pile of rubbish. Should you just delete that file and be done with it? At least that way no one will ever find what a terrible writer you really are? No! Keep it. And even if you do delete it, guess what? The writing fairies have kept a back up in your subconscious. You will notice that whatever you write about, now, in the future, maybe even something you wrote twenty years ago, will somehow find its way back into your new manuscript. We have stories inside of us that need to come out and they will. But maybe that awful book you wrote didn’t present it well enough; take heart, your new book might. Everything you write has value - whether it’s trying out an idea or planting seeds for future stories - it’s all important. Just because you didn’t win the Booker Prize doesn’t mean it was a huge waste of time. All those manuscripts, whether they are hiding in drawers or out to your agent, are worthy. Thank them and yourself for typing them into life.