Do you revisit your own stories?

[THBGato]

Lately, I've been feeling an overwhelming desire to revisit some old friends in a new tale.

Please, please, please, please, please! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!

**ensures freezer is stocked with ice cream and there are sufficient tissues to cope with the inevitable tears**

 

[Hotcoffee123]

I haven’t written any stories, but I do go back to my homes. I tried to read them objectively, but then I always end up fondly thinking about how ai felt at the time.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Yes. Many of my old stories make me smile as I reacquaint with the characters and situations. It's not a conceit to enjoy your own work product.

I actually enjoy reading one of my older stories on occasion. I can read some like a new reader, picking up flaws and plot inconsistencies as I go, but enjoying the trip anyway.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Rarely if ever, unless I'm reposting it somewhere else, I may go years without reading one. It doesn't cross my mind to reread my work. When and if I do, it's been long enough I've forgotten much of it. The only other exception is rereading something unfinished to get back in the groove of writing at it.

 

[StillStunned]

Rarely if ever, unless I'm reposting it somewhere else, I may go years without reading one. It doesn't cross my mind to reread my work. When and if I do, it's been long enough I've forgotten much of it. The only other exception is rereading something unfinished to get back in the groove of writing at it.

Last night I was glancing through some of my older WIPs, trying to decide what I wanted to write, and I was impressed with past-StillStunned's writing. It's as if he knew just what I like to read.

 

[mrsgee]

I read mine quite regularly. However they are written for me, and I don't publish them.

 

[iwatchus]

I read mine quite regularly. However they are written for me, and I don't publish them.

If you are willing to share, there are almost certainly others who would enjoy the same stories as you. It is scary to put your babies (and you) out there, but it is so heartwarming when one of the connects with someone else.

 

[Trionyx]

Someone recently wrote a nice comment on one of my stories from several years ago.
I had a few minutes and reread the story. Kind of fun but a thought that ran through my mind several times was, 'Where did I get that idea?'
I've never been in a creative field and it surprises me sometimes what my feeble brain has produced.

 

[AG31]

Someone recently wrote a nice comment on one of my stories from several years ago.
I had a few minutes and reread the story. Kind of fun but a thought that ran through my mind several times was, 'Where did I get that idea?'
I've never been in a creative field and it surprises me sometimes what my feeble brain has produced.

Me too. Occasionally I've bumped into something I wrote, maybe in a post, and it was so insightful and well put that it didn't cross my mind that I had written it. Who was I????

 

[DHerbert]

I’m curious: Do you ever go back to your own stories and enjoy them as a reader would?

I’m not talking about rereading them with an eye to editing them, or to admire once more the many skillful turns of phrase, I’m talking about going back to them because the content is just so damn hot to you.

I’m a little surprised because, as a new writer, I thought the writing would be the thing, you know, and once it was done it was done, publish and move on. But I’ve found there’s one story I wrote that just really, really does it for me - and I find myself often going back to it for the pleasure of getting back into its particular headspace. How about you?

Sure, I've a couple that 'do' it for me. And why wouldn't they - I'm writing out my kinks, and the things I like, so it seems entirely reasonable that I enjoy them!

 

[DeMont]

I’m curious: Do you ever go back to your own stories and enjoy them as a reader would?

I’m not talking about rereading them with an eye to editing them, or to admire once more the many skillful turns of phrase, I’m talking about going back to them because the content is just so damn hot to you.

I’m a little surprised because, as a new writer, I thought the writing would be the thing, you know, and once it was done it was done, publish and move on. But I’ve found there’s one story I wrote that just really, really does it for me - and I find myself often going back to it for the pleasure of getting back into its particular headspace. How about you?

@GuiltyCowboy,
Howdy pard'ner... I will, seldom, go back into my stash of unfinished stories. I flick my gaze across titles and think, "Ah, yes, that was where so and so did such and such and then..." Then promptly pass it by. As for my finished and published work, I rarely go back, they're like chapters in an ongoing book, a book that I am eager to see what the next chapter brings. That's probably the main reason I don't write serial stories, I write "stand-alones".

My memory is such that I may well employ one or two similar turns of phrase in succeeding stories but not by intent.
Respectfully,
D.

 

[ClockworkCourtesan]

I revisit, revise, or rewrite a lot of my own stories. I have an odd and vague way of writing minor plot points so I can switch up little details in stories to change some things around without destroying the primary goals. Plus it helps add plot points to move them to different genres. I took an older coming of age werewolf (remember all the rage behind those) story and reworked into a light thriller transgender story. Current story I'm revising is a cougar story, an eternal cursed phantom, think female version of Lo Pan from Big Trouble In Little China, that falls for a younger soldier. The entire plot revolves around his obsession with her 1969 Mercury Cougar, so a cougar that drives a Cougar. At least I thought it was clever, once. I've done that with 10 or 12 stories over the last 5 or 6 months. I don't think I've ever posted a story here. I tinker with them too much to ever truly finish one, one I've been toying with for 30ish years now, it's a mix of The Expanse and the manga/anime Bodacious Space Pirates long before either where a thing.

 

[Nightaelf]

I often find rereading my stories more arousing than writing them. When I’m writing, I’m not really focused on that particular part, I’m just focused on the act of writing. But when I go back and read it, I often do find it arousing. I think, oh, okay, nice. So yes, that’s how it is for me.

But I usually only reread it once. Because at the same time… the annoying thing is that I often think, oh, I could have done that differently, or hmm, that could have been better. You know, sometimes when you reread it, even though you’ve already gone over it multiple times while editing, once it’s published you always spot things you could have done differently.

But rereading for the feeling, I definitely recognize that.

 

[Cly_Anders]

I’m curious: Do you ever go back to your own stories and enjoy them as a reader would?

I’m not talking about rereading them with an eye to editing them, or to admire once more the many skillful turns of phrase, I’m talking about going back to them because the content is just so damn hot to you.

I’m a little surprised because, as a new writer, I thought the writing would be the thing, you know, and once it was done it was done, publish and move on. But I’ve found there’s one story I wrote that just really, really does it for me - and I find myself often going back to it for the pleasure of getting back into its particular headspace. How about you?

I'm my own favorite author... I know that sounds really arrogant to say, but... isn't the reason we write is because we couldn't find a book that matched what we wanted? The number one advice from writers to writers is "write what you would want to read." Why would it be weird for us to then turn around and love our books? It's more than just pride, it's more than just "yeah, I did that!" Well, no one else has written a book about a dragon from another dimension locked in an elf's body and a man that shares a body-space with a giant rat in a dysfunctional hate/love relationship. So yeah, my stories ARE my favorite stories, and not simply because I wrote them. When I write about werewolves, I write them as furries, not people. No one else wrote a story about werewolves leaving earth and colonizing their own planet where they never change back to human form ever. I wrote that, and that's a story I would want to read. Human werewolves are boring. Give me a big furry man with a knot! That's why I wanted to write, and I've always loved my own stories. I'll open the document, start reading, get really into it and realize "dang it, the author hasn't updated. ... wait, I'm the author! uuuuuuugh!"

 

[redgarters]

This thread makes me happy, because I read my own stories so much it's frankly embarrassing. It's lovely to find out that so many of you do it too
I read through every newly published story of mine as soon as it is up. There's something different about reading it published than as a finished draft. Then sometimes I'm reminded of something when I'm writing another story and I'll go back to reread it, and end up finishing the whole thing.
But most often it will be because of a comment or feedback that mentions something the reader liked in some way, and I'll go back to check it out, experience that scene or those emotions a again, with the point made in the comment in mind. It lets me connect with the person that the moment meant someting for. And more often than not I'll then read the whole story again.
Every time I find something that I could or should have done better, or remember something my lovely beta readers said, and I think that makes me a bit better.
And now you have an inkling why I'm not more productive...

 

[StillStunned]

I'm my own favorite author... I know that sounds really arrogant to say, but... isn't the reason we write is because we couldn't find a book that matched what we wanted? The number one advice from writers to writers is "write what you would want to read." Why would it be weird for us to then turn around and love our books? It's more than just pride, it's more than just "yeah, I did that!" Well, no one else has written a book about a dragon from another dimension locked in an elf's body and a man that shares a body-space with a giant rat in a dysfunctional hate/love relationship. So yeah, my stories ARE my favorite stories, and not simply because I wrote them. When I write about werewolves, I write them as furries, not people. No one else wrote a story about werewolves leaving earth and colonizing their own planet where they never change back to human form ever. I wrote that, and that's a story I would want to read. Human werewolves are boring. Give me a big furry man with a knot! That's why I wanted to write, and I've always loved my own stories. I'll open the document, start reading, get really into it and realize "dang it, the author hasn't updated. ... wait, I'm the author! uuuuuuugh!"

Apart from the details of your stories, I could have written this.