When your story just sucks

yukonnights said:

Just a random thought that popped up when I read this; What-if, instead of just cleaning up the few technical errors like misspelled words...You use what you've learned since that first story to enhance it and polish it to your liking. Then slightly change the Title and post it in Erotic Couplings? (actually, I think it could also survive Romance. You might need to expand the Epilogue a bit—I'm not sure. I like the use of the Epilogue since it provides the punch that wraps up the story so nicely.)

Obviously, the reason to do this is to find out once and for all if the less than expected reception is mostly a factor of the category you first put it in. I made the exact same error on my first ever story—I assumed Loving Wives were loving wives

Click to expand...

No.

A work needs to be finished at some point. This is more a philosophical issue than a practical one for me, but I’m unsettled by the notion that finished work should be easy to de-finish.

I excoriate George Lucas for what he did with “Star Wars.” He did nothing to improve the story and guaranteed that when you say, “I like Star Wars!” people would reply, “Which one?”

Ep IV? ANH? “The first one?” No. Just no. The work was finished and released. Done. Move on. Han shot first and fucking Jabba didn’t need to rehash what Greedo had just said.

blozo said:

I've written more than one I didn't think were all that great, including my geek pride entry that I waited way too long to start on and had to rush to finish.

However, one story really stands out. I thought it was good when I published it, but the readers soon (and vehemently) corrected me, both in the ratings and the comments.

Click to expand...

I always struggle a little with "what if people don't like my next story as much as the previous ones?"

I say leave it up, as a reminder to yourself that it's not the end of the world if they're not all perfect.

The one about "Becca" seemed like a good story to me also. I second the opinions of the other person who gave it a positive review on this thread. I would leave it. As mentioned by others, the relatively low rating is probably due to some fluke of the LW reader demographic. I don't see any big reason to change it.

Hypoxia said:

Revisiting a finished story is like a dog returning to its vomit. Let it go.

Click to expand...

You have a unique way of cutting straight to the point, sort of like swatting flies with a claw hammer. I like that!

I went back and corrected the spelling errors.
I used to have a nasty habit of putting "in to" where "into" belonged, I corrected that too.
No further changes are coming, and it will stay where it is.

Edits, understandably, are a very low priority, so figure the corrections will be up in 2 or 3 weeks.

Hypoxia said:

Revisiting a finished story is like a dog returning to its vomit. Let it go.

Click to expand...

There are exceptions. I'm putting a couple of older stories on other sites. One I just touched up a bit, for the other I made some significant changes.

Perhaps I'm curious how a different audience reacts to them.

blozo said:

You have a unique way of cutting straight to the point, sort of like swatting flies with a claw hammer. I like that!

Click to expand...

My inner poet likes to be succinct.

I went back and corrected the spelling errors.
I used to have a nasty habit of putting "in to" where "into" belonged, I corrected that too.
No further changes are coming, and it will stay where it is.

Click to expand...

I just re-read portions of my (most recent) hot series. I saw many many goofs -- but readers didn't complain so I won't go back for fixups. When I write again, it'll be something else.

Voboy said:

No.

A work needs to be finished at some point. This is more a philosophical issue than a practical one for me, but I’m unsettled by the notion that finished work should be easy to de-finish.

Click to expand...

vanmyers86 said:

I'll play devil's advocate to the prevailing view to keep it. If it makes you wince to look at it, why would you keep it on the site where you constantly have to see it? Life is hard enough without deliberately keeping sources of unhappiness around...Do what you think is right for you, and don't look back. If you later feel you made a mistake, repost it and see what happens.

Click to expand...

Hypoxia said:

Revisiting a finished story is like a dog returning to its vomit. Let it go.

Click to expand...

gunhilltrain said:

There are exceptions. I'm putting a couple of older stories on other sites. One I just touched up a bit, for the other I made some significant changes...Perhaps I'm curious how a different audience reacts to them.

Click to expand...

Thankfully, blozo received enough input to make the choice that works for him. The sampling of responses makes it obvious this question elicits a variety of opinions. Luckily, I've never felt the need to take a story down, and I've only edited one due to a freak garble of some words that occurred between my final edit and publication???(still have no idea how )

My take-away from this conversation is; There is no correct answer. No absolute. I view this as I would other creative ventures; If a word or line in a song I wrote can be improved, I'm going to improve it...same with a poem. If I see a flaw in a photo I've manipulated in PhotoShop, I won't hesitate to pull it back up and tweak it some more. Not 100% applicable but; I'm just finishing a total re-do on a 35K story that was ready to post because it just didn't feel right. Now I admit to being somewhat of a perfectionist, which I mention because not everyone is. What works for one person isn't going to work for another, etc.

Since there is no correct answer to this question, that really leaves it at; Each person has to hearken to their own instincts and do what makes them feel satisfied in regard to edits on published stories. I'll never criticize anyone for whatever choice they make.

yukonnights said:

Each person has to hearken to their own instincts and do what makes them feel satisfied in regard to edits on published stories. I'll never criticize anyone for whatever choice they make.

Click to expand...

Well said.