Is it just me?? or....(writing thread)

[ABSTRUSE]

have you gone back over old story files you have stashed away and reread stuff and thought.......when the hell did I write that?? or damn, I wrote that and its pretty good? or even, I really need to write more and do something with what I have?

Anybody?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Yep. I come across old files that strike me as excellent or awful.

 

[rgraham666]

Not so much these days. I took a nasty hit to my confidence last year. Still don't have it back.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

JBJ: some can be excellently aweful...or awefully excellent.

Rob: I get that, but I also know you just need a boost....see wife for details.

 

[jomar]

Probably. If the hard drive hadn't crashed and, well, you know...

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Probably. If the hard drive hadn't crashed and, well, you know...

Been there, lost lots.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

The ones I don't remember don't have much content either. Anything longer than three paragraphs is pretty well remembered inside my head.

The ones I want to finish... There's a few of them, and some need major revisions and rewrites.

There are some that aren't finished for a reason. they never should have been started...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Probably. If the hard drive hadn't crashed and, well, you know...

Happened to me in April. I lost 1000s of pages of material and research.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Happened to me in April. I lost 1000s of pages of material and research.

I now have an external hard drive for storage...and I back up on disk as well.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I now have an external hard drive for storage...and I back up on disk as well.

Youre smarter than me!

 

[jomar]

Happened to me in April. I lost 1000s of pages of material and research.

Sucks. Why I'm having to redo my music files as well. Spring for the backup drive. Or maybe they even have a free backup service online now - I know there are pay sites.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't often go over old reading files. I'm in the process of reviewing and doing a little rewrite on a series of six novels I wrote over a four-year period a decade and a half ago that I've finally found a publisher for--but I've found I don't have to do as much to them as I thought I did. For some reason I was possessed by using the past perfect tense and not using contractions then, though.

 

[bronzeage]

have you gone back over old story files you have stashed away and reread stuff and thought.......when the hell did I write that?? or damn, I wrote that and its pretty good? or even, I really need to write more and do something with what I have?

Anybody?

I have saved a couple hundred short scenes and paragraphs. Whenever I am stuck, I go back and read them. Most sound unfamiliar. Whatever made me think of it at the moment is long forgotten.

It's a valuable source for material.

 

[oggbashan]

Yes, I wonder sometimes what I was thinking when I wrote some of my stories, particularly the unfinished ones.

I have back-ups on 5.25 floppy floppies for an IBM XT, on 3.5 floppies, on my hard drive, on CD-ROMs and DVDs. Everything from the earlier formats are on the DVDs.

I don't have the earlier, longer draft of my first erotic story written in the 1980s. I have the revised, shorter version but I lost the first draft when my IBM XT died and I didn't think I would need that draft again. I've regretted it ever since which is why I back-up frequently.

I ought to edit and revise some of the earliest posted stories on Literotica, which were written years before I found the site. I keep procrastinating because such writing time I have is better spent writing new stories. I'm not sure I can get back into my 1990s writing brain so any revisions would have to be drastic, so drastic that the result would be mainly new work.

Og

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Yes, sometimes I wonder as well. Unfortunately I sometimes remember what I was thinking when I wrote it, and a wave of embarassment washes over me.

I pretty much have all of my erotic writing since I returned to the genre about ten years ago. Back in the 60s, however, before the era of electronic memory, I wrote quite a bit. Most of it was graphic vignettes, sold by page to a publisher/writer who strung them together into short stories and novels. He paid us hacks up to a dollar a page, depending on how good the vignette was (read 'how little rewriting will I have to do'). I vaguely remember some of them, and wouldn't mind seeing them all again, but, alas, I have no copies.

 

[Belegon]

I have plenty of things I need to finish... at least one of them is five years old. I go back and forth on whether I should try to update old stuff... it takes away from writing new.

I also go back and forth on the whole editing gig. Honestly, I have made more money as an editor...but the potential is far greater as a writer. Should I be refining skill that are never going to make me enough money to live on because they are making me more money currently? OR should I be working on something that may pay me next to nothing, but also may be what I need to finally break through to a larger audience?

 

[fuckwaffle]

yep. i still haven't really finished anything that i think is worthy of gracing lit as yet. still working on things, hundred of things. i doubt i will ever finish anything that will satisfy me enough to post though.

 

[TxRad]

A few months ago I was too busy to write but I did have some time to go back over some older stuff. Two stories stuck in my mind. A week later, I cut a third off the end where I had stopped on one and took half off the front of the second. Tying the two together took only a couple of paragraphs and some name changes It's now posted on lit with a very nice score.

Sometimes it's not what you have but where you put it.

 

[R. Richard]

I mostly go back over my old files to see if I can find things that I can expand into a novel.

 

[_Lynn_]

I look at them, but then have no clue what to do with them, so I close the files and forget about them again.

 

[squarejohn]

Yeah. Usually it gets tossed with the thought: I can't believe I wrote that piece of shit.

 

[EmeraldKitten]

Most sound unfamiliar. Whatever made me think of it at the moment is long forgotten.

It's a valuable source for material.

I agree. I've read some things that make me go "wow, I'm deep" or, "yeah, I'm about as deep as a mud puddle."



(Abs, didja see a thread I had a week-ish ago? About those unfinished stories that are rotting.. I started a story swinging thread. If anyone is actually doing it, I don't know. I'm attached though. lol.)

 

[Liar]

I may be weird, but I actually make sure to delete any writing projects that end up in the doldrums. (unless it's writing for a purpose - like money or a waiting audience - and I have a deadline) Because I know from experience that once I lose the momentum, it's lost. It's just as rewarding and much easier to start sketching on a new plot.

So it very rarely happens that I dig up an old cul-de-sac of a story and get those ideas.

I have now and then seen one of my plays that I wrote and directed for independent and coumminity theatre groups over the years, that has been dug up and re-interpreted by new people, everything from High School drama groups to professional ensembles. And once as a novella film.

It's an equally exciting, delightful, bizarre and horrifying experience.

 

[CharleyH]

have you gone back over old story files you have stashed away and reread stuff and thought.......when the hell did I write that?? or damn, I wrote that and its pretty good? or even, I really need to write more and do something with what I have?

Anybody?

Well, I have a lot of confidence in my writing and so I've never actually said to myself - WHOA! That's shit. However, I have come across sentences where I've thought, 'did I write that beautiful thang?' More often than not, I'm a thinker. When I re-read old stories I constantly look for ways to improve the story, deepen the characters, be more precise with the semiotic elements. My sex never needs improving.

 

[CharleyH]

Because I know from experience that once I lose the momentum, it's lost. It's just as rewarding and much easier to start sketching on a new plot.

Very, very true.