Thinking of rewriting and resubmitting a previous story

[PrincessArianrhod]

It's been bugging me for a while... It was my first complete erotica story and one that started out fairly well. About halfway through writing it, I got caught up too much in the mood and instead of leaving it be to amuse myself, I 'banged it out' as it were, including a love-at-first-sight conclusion that now makes me wince. It ended up being, as one comment accurately pointed out, a story of two halves.

It's my second highest viewed and rated story from my small collection but I really feel that its achieved that in spite of its failings. Rather than simply abandoning it to experience and writing a new one with a similar scenario, I want to give it the makeover I feel it deserves.

I know many of us probably have stories we feel this way about and some of you will, no doubt, simply thrash out a new one and leave the old one to its fate. I'm less than prolific, though and have time constraints that force me to nurture each creative vision probably more than most.

What would you do and how would you approach rewriting and submitting if you were so inclined?

Standing Room Only is the story I am referring to for anyone curious.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

If it irks you a lot, you should maybe keep the old one up but also write a new one just the way you want it, maybe add a twist or two to make it different enough. If anything, it will be interesting to observe and compare the reactions and comments. Just make sure you let readers know this is a remake of your old story. I think that is the simplest solution as pulling down the old one and publishing a new one would make you lose the feedback you already have. You would still have it saved somewhere, of course, but no one else would be able to see it and compare for themselves.

 

[Trionyx]

Remember, minor editing won’t delete the votes and comments but a rewrite will. Up to you.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I had a similar experience with one of my earlier standalone short stories. Another author mentioned it in an e-mail, because we were talking about varying narrative styles. I re-read the story for the first time in a couple years. When I got to the end, I had that moment of realization: "Oh, crap! There was a MUCH better ending to be had!" When I bounced my idea off of him in a new e-mail, the response was, "I literally laughed out loud! You really need to write that ending."
Rather than yanking the story and submitting a new version with that new ending, I submitted the new version as an edit. It's not one of my more popular stories, so I doubt too many people noticed. I have the satisfaction of knowing it's a better story now than it was.

 

[Voboy]

If it irks you a lot, you should maybe keep the old one up but also write a new one just the way you want it, maybe add a twist or two to make it different enough. If anything, it will be interesting to observe and compare the reactions and comments. Just make sure you let readers know this is a remake of your old story. I think that is the simplest solution as pulling down the old one and publishing a new one would make you lose the feedback you already have. You would still have it saved somewhere, of course, but no one else would be able to see it and compare for themselves.

This is what I would do.

I've never thought about taking down and "correcting" any of my stories, but I'm aware a lot of people ponder it. I tend to think that once something is published, it's more or less set in stone, for better or for worse. Rewrites/remakes/directors' cuts just serve to confuse people and dilute the power of the created story.

Leave it be. It's what you produced. Be proud of it, warts and all; after all, it has touched plenty of readers. I don't think it's fair to take away a work they cherish. You published it, so it belongs to the public now. Philosophically, you already had your chance to affect it. Post your new version and let it stand alongside the old as a monument to how far you've come.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm with Voboy on this. Write the next story. That way, you'll have an early story that's okay, with some flaws, and a later one that's more polished.

 

[PrincessArianrhod]

I'm inclined to agree I think; a direct comparison would be useful as well as interesting. I'm not sure an edit would be as creatively satisfying either.

Any idea if there'd be a problem giving the new one the same title? An intro would be necessary if course, within going down the 'intro or not' debate rabbit hole.

 

[Altissimus]

To answer your original question with a question: are you doing it for you, or for your readers? Both are valid answers, but might change your approach. If it's for you then I would consider a re-submission, deleting the original. If it's for your readers, then publishing a 'second version' might work.

Any idea if there'd be a problem giving the new one the same title?

I believe this is accepted, as I know there's several stories with the same titles by different authors. It would simply look a little odd in your catalogue, so I would call it "Standing Room Only: Redux" or something. Maybe even "Standing Room Only: Move Over"

 

[PrincessArianrhod]

Primarily it's for myself but I don't want to rule out the possibility that some of the readers who enjoyed the original would like to still have access to it.

Suitably vague and non-committal answer I think.

 

[KeithD]

How much do you like the comments and rating of the story now in the Lit. file? If you can let those be ditched, delete the story now there and submit the version you now prefer. If you really want them preserved, leave the story and move on to writing other stories.

What would I do/what do I do? I just move on to writing other stories. I don't fuss with ones already published here.

 

[alohadave]

It would simply look a little odd in your catalogue, so I would call it "Standing Room Only: Redux"

I'm writing a new version of one of mine, I'm and I plan on titling it just like this.

 

[Altissimus]

I'm writing a new version of one of mine and I plan on titling it just like this.

Thing is, no one will ever read the previous version if an updated version is there, so doesn't it make sense to just delete it at that point?

 

[alohadave]

Thing is, no one will ever read the previous version if an updated version is there, so doesn't it make sense to just delete it at that point?

No, because they will be different enough to be distinct from each other.

Same story and plot, but reworked with new characters, and hopefully better writing.

 

[Jordaninlove]

Im looking for an author and i loved your story if you wanted to write something new with me

 

[Djmac1031]

Any idea if there'd be a problem giving the new one the same title?

Call it "Standing Room Only (Redux 2023)" or something along those lines and then yes, a short intro explaining it's a retelling of the original should be fine.

 

[Djmac1031]

Call it "Standing Room Only (Redux 2023)" or something along those lines and then yes, a short intro explaining it's a retelling of the original should be fine.

Also: keep the intro short. If you wanna talk more in depth about why you changed the story, save that for the end.

You don't wanna put off potential new readers with a long winded intro comparing the two versions.

 

[ChloeTzang]

The only stories I rewrite are the ones that get rejected.

 

[8letters]

Literotica ate my post, and I didn't notice it.

 

[Stacnash]

From a reader's perspective, and someone who now follows you, what you've proposed is absolutely fine.

You're the creator and if the work means enough to you that you'd want to give it the makeover it deserves, then it might be a creative process that's quite fun and invigorating for you.

I would just say that you don't need to worry about potentially sacrificing a story with a high rating. Your skills are impressive and you're going to collect hot tags like they're going out of style. You're great.

There was also a scene I cut out in the editing process as I thought the story was too long that I wanted to add back.

Why did you cut it? Did JCMcNeilly write it first?

 

[gunhilltrain]

If it irks you a lot, you should maybe keep the old one up but also write a new one just the way you want it, maybe add a twist or two to make it different enough. If anything, it will be interesting to observe and compare the reactions and comments. Just make sure you let readers know this is a remake of your old story. I think that is the simplest solution as pulling down the old one and publishing a new one would make you lose the feedback you already have. You would still have it saved somewhere, of course, but no one else would be able to see it and compare for themselves.

With all due respect to electricblue above, I have fiddled with more than a dozen existing stories. I should make an accurate count; it's surely more than that. These are the methods I have used. Yes, I'm a bit disorganized and erratic at times, but that's me. Also, I didn't really know what I was doing when I started here in 2018.

1. I just changed the story and kept the existing title. As somebody mentioned here, the existing votes and comments remain it place.

2. I have entirely replaced a story and used a new title. In that case, I was starting from scratch with all of the metrics. Yet, about half of the original text was reused.

3. I rewrote the story with a new title, and kept the old one where it was. Most of the time the new one went on a different site, yet there are about three cases where both versions are on Lit. No one seems to have noticed. Nobody said, "Hey, you already used that theme / plot in such-and-such". People's attention spans are too short and there is a huge amount of material on here.

Life is based on contingencies, I guess.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Also: keep the intro short. If you wanna talk more in depth about why you changed the story, save that for the end.

You don't wanna put off potential new readers with a long winded intro comparing the two versions.

Since you asked for advice - I see that the story you wrote is nearly a year old and it got a very good response for the readers. Also, I assume that you are not as weird as I am, and you haven't joined three different sites. (That makes for quite a sprawling mess, but I have to live with it and I've learned to cope with it.) Thus I assume Lit is your only option (good for you, perhaps).

If you are so inclined, write a new version with a new title and post it on Lit. As Dj mentioned above, don't mention that the old one is still there. As I suggested, probably no one will notice. Certainly, nothing bad is going to happen to have "half-duplicate" stories up. (I just coined that phrase. Shorten it to "half-dupe.")

Maybe some sharp-eyed reader (there aren't many of them here) will say, "Hey, the first half of this is actually from 'Standing Room Only.' " So what? Ignore the comment, delete it if you wish, or just give a brief response. ("I decided to redo it, and I left the old one up.") Hardly anyone responds a second time anyway.

 

[Euphony]

What would you do and how would you approach rewriting and submitting if you were so inclined?

I'm generally pro-author/"muse" and that there is a certain knowing that can only come from that intimate relationship.

Nuts and bolts, many will tell you not to bother, there are more stories to be told but I've found mindful revisits work so long as you aren't the type to obsess over "getting the thing finally right."

It's helpful having a safe, familiar sandbox to play in where you can focus on technicals rather than have attentions diverted by the playground and people surrounding.

You'll get a sense of it as you go along. Use those signs that crop up.

If you fighting "the good" or, opposite end of the spectrum, losing motivation/focus/interest, address them.

Most advice given comes from a lens of common writer behaviors which is generically helpful to the broadest range of folks but never really fits an individual author quite right.

Becoming your own stories "tailor" is one of the best skills you'll ever learn. You can make remnants, cast-offs, hand-me-downs, essentially "other people's trash," into bespoke looking dress that shames people spending (writing = efforting) 10x as much.

 

[Djmac1031]

I think rewriting a story can be a good exercise especially for a newer author.

A year after I published my story The White Room, I decided to finally write a sequel.

Looking back at the first one, I realized how far I'd come as a writer.

Not that it was terrible. It was pretty good actually.

But I definitely saw things I would have changed now; mostly grammar sentence structure, eliminating a few over used or unnecessary descriptors, etc.

So I decided to go back and reedit the original.

Didn't change anything about the original story of course; no plot changes, no major additions other than a sentence or phrase here and there.

But it definitely was an improvement and now flowed and connected much better stylistically with the sequel.

The best way we can learn from our mistakes is fix them.

Not every story of course; I have plenty of embarrassing typos or badly worded sentences in my stories I still cringe at but not enough to bother submitting a whole new edit.

But I think especially if you're working on a series it can be helpful to work it out so that it all connects and flows better for readers, and for you the writer.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

It's been bugging me for a while... It was my first complete erotica story and one that started out fairly well. About halfway through writing it, I got caught up too much in the mood and instead of leaving it be to amuse myself, I 'banged it out' as it were, including a love-at-first-sight conclusion that now makes me wince. It ended up being, as one comment accurately pointed out, a story of two halves.

It's my second highest viewed and rated story from my small collection but I really feel that its achieved that in spite of its failings. Rather than simply abandoning it to experience and writing a new one with a similar scenario, I want to give it the makeover I feel it deserves.

I know many of us probably have stories we feel this way about and some of you will, no doubt, simply thrash out a new one and leave the old one to its fate. I'm less than prolific, though and have time constraints that force me to nurture each creative vision probably more than most.

What would you do and how would you approach rewriting and submitting if you were so inclined?

Standing Room Only is the story I am referring to for anyone curious.

You can add the word Redux to the title of the new version like Millie Did with one. I don't think it is published here though.

 

[PrincessArianrhod]

My problem with Standing Room Only is two-fold I think.

If I equate the story to a hill, the climb up was steady, enjoyable, building the requisite tension for the ride down the other side. By the time I reached the top, I was so enamoured of the view, so pleased with reaching the summit, I fell unceremoniously down the other side and called it love. That's the first problem.

The second just plain makes me uncomfortable to even talk about it.

I appreciate everyone who's weighed in; a good balance of viewpoints.

I think I'm going to rewrite it with major edits and change the emphasis on certain things, then submit it as a new story with an addendum to the title.