Reworking old work

[grenefire]

Hi all,

I just got a comment on one of my first stories (from 2009), and it got me thinking about whether other people ever rework their old stories.

The anonymous comment stated, “Good story but hard to read, you should re-edit and proofread it after this many years.”

While I know the story is rough, I’ve never even thought about going back and rewriting it. It is a reflection of the writer I was back then. It isn’t perfect by any means, but I like that people can read it and see how far I have come as a writer.
Have you ever rewritten a story and replaced it?

 

[KeithD]

I wind up reworking in some fashion my stories at each new placement--usually from the original placed in the marketplace to any progression of sites like Literotica that I subsequently post it to.

 

[lovecraft68]

There's old stories I would like to do some work on to make better, but end of the day I only have so much time and would rather work on something new and go forward, then go backwards.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I've removed older stories from the website, reworked and resubmitted.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'm currently working on a rewrite of an older story. After I published it, I had the notion to make it part of a "collection" (not a series) of related stories. I've yet to get around to doing so, but it's moved up my to-do list.

In rereading it, I was aware of changes in my style (hopefully, for the better) since I wrote it, as well a few errors and typos. I will be editing it to include an author's note linking it to the related stories, so I figured I might as well fix it up as well.

Beside that, I have not significantly reworked anything.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Hi all,

I just got a comment on one of my first stories (from 2009), and it got me thinking about whether other people ever rework their old stories.

The anonymous comment stated, “Good story but hard to read, you should re-edit and proofread it after this many years.”

While I know the story is rough, I’ve never even thought about going back and rewriting it. It is a reflection of the writer I was back then. It isn’t perfect by any means, but I like that people can read it and see how far I have come as a writer.
Have you ever rewritten a story and replaced it?

I reworked the first four stories I had published here. This was mostly to remove elements I wish I hadn’t included in the first place.

I have also gone back and reworked stories when they became part of a broader set of stories. Sometimes to presage the later episodes.

Em

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've got too many ideas for new stories to bother re-working old ones.

Besides, old stories are what they are; they reflect me the writer then, not me the writer now.

If the idea was that good, I'd write a new story rather than rework an old one. That way I'd have two stories.

 

[Altissimus]

I submitted an edit on my first-ever story. The story was published 14 years ago; the edit went out a month or so back. The story has had 92k reads, so anyone who was ever likely to read it probably has by now. I doubt anyone will particularly notice the edits, but I suppose I know they're there.

 

[Rob_Royale]

One of my early stories, I've been tempted to rewrite it in the third person. That's the only one though.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I've never done it. I'm kind of the opinion that they reflect a certain period of time (and skill), so I just leave those early stories there. If I thought one of them was horrendous, I would probably just remove it.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I've thought about it, and if I did, I wouldn't repost it here, already being here. I let them stand as they are as a testament to my progress in writing. I know they suck in ways and that's okay.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I've just done a major rewrite of one of the first stories I posted here - or rather the first story I posted after an eight year hiatus. That story was written rather quickly and posted without much thought under a 'just do it' philosophy. After I settled into writing it, there were a lot of things that bothered me about it, especially some of the work-place related power-balance issues, so I took it down, worked on it over several months and put it back up with a whole new intro scene and ending, while still trying to keep what worked about the raw writing. In terms of score, it was successful, as the republished version has gone H while the original only hovered at around 4.00 (I'm also cannier about categories and put it in a more suitable on this time) - though my goal wasn't really to improve the scores (if it were there were other stories I'd have repolished first) it was more that I wasn't really happy about readers seeing it and thinking it represented my general work.

 

[Stimtheone]

I am, right at this moment, reworking an older book of mine. Both to bring it to lit standards and make it less cringe. I had enthusiasm, but not a great idea of what to do.

Sometimes it's a worthy idea if you know people might want it, but don't linger on old works too much or you might be tempted to rework the rework.

 

[Sinstories]

Hi all,

I just got a comment on one of my first stories (from 2009), and it got me thinking about whether other people ever rework their old stories.

The anonymous comment stated, “Good story but hard to read, you should re-edit and proofread it after this many years.”

While I know the story is rough, I’ve never even thought about going back and rewriting it. It is a reflection of the writer I was back then. It isn’t perfect by any means, but I like that people can read it and see how far I have come as a writer.
Have you ever rewritten a story and replaced it?

I'm having the same thoughts. First story I wrote ended up being an 8 part series that I felt was good. However the first 2 chapters are bad, both from a story perspective (short and rushed) and from a writing perspective. I ended the series, but have been thinking about writing a sequel that updates the characters as their lives moved forward. That may draw some interest to the series from new readers, thus my thoughts.

Seems most responses here don't support the idea, but I think I will both for the reason above and because I really don't have any new ideas floating around that I love, so I might as well (works for Hollywood, they just rewrite old stuff rather than coming up with anything new, so why not me )

 

[Candy_Kane54]

When I am stuck on a story I am working on, I will keep busy by editing some of my earlier works which seems to help me get back to work on my current project.