I stumbled across something I had written years ago on a yellow legal pad. A snippet of a story that never went any further. If I do say so myself, it was some of the best writing I’ve ever done.
On the other hand, I remember when I wrote it and it never was going anywhere else. It was just a 2-3 page “slice of life” that never had a story around it. Or, maybe what it made it so good was that there wasn’t a story around it. It left that up to the reader.
That’s one of the struggles I frequently deal with. I come up with “a good bit of writing” but there’s not really a place for it. Not long enough to be a short story, let alone a novel. Maybe I’ll just publish those things here. If–like seeds–they ever grow into a story, then those of you who read it here can tell (anyone who cares) “I read the proto-version of that story!!”