Complete or Delete? Advice Sought

[Meanderer]

Maybe this is a lot to ask of strangers but I have a conundrum for which I seek advice.

I started a story about a year and a half ago. I started the first chapter not knowing where it would go. As I wrote my story, I realized it needed more than one chapter, and I came up with an outline for 5 chapters, and figured I could publish one chapter a month. I finished the first and started on the second, which rushed to ill effect – or not. I realize in writing chapter 2 so hastily, and doing a terrible editing job, I had also developed the characters in ways that I hadn’t fully anticipated.

As I wasn’t very happy with chapter 2, I gave the third chapter more time but as I worked it I found the need to much better understand my characters. I finally got that out, but felt a great deal of trepidation about chapter 4 because I knew it would be the most intense, and the longest. Between my work getting busier and the rest of life, my writing slowed down until this winter, when I had a bit more time.

So now I’m almost done with chapter 4, and I can’t write the climactic scene because I realize I’ve written so much, in an excessive, grotesque manner, about my first wife, and after 25 years I finally figured out why she left me.

No, I haven’t spent 25 years upset about it. I might not be well adjusted but I do love my life, my current wife of 17 years, our daughter, everything. What I have done, is had this major “aha” moment which pulled up a lot of the upset I did feel 25 years ago and its put me in a major funk of a mood. (The explanation she gave me I misunderstood. I understand women a lot better now…)


62000+ words into a story and here’s my multiple choice question that I hope you will help me decide:
1. Delete the whole thing of my computer and Literotica, and move on immediately (this is my current favorite)
2. Finish writing it, fix up the first three parts for consistency, and count it as a life-achievement; and for the several readers who’ve asked me if I was going to continue the series. It would be painful, and I’m not really a good enough author to make it real art.
3. Rewrite Chapter 1, to be a more upbeat romp, and delete the rest.


Why ask you all? I felt as writers of erotica, you might have faced this situation yourselves at some point.

thank you so much for your responses

Meanderer

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

No LIT writer ever goes wrong deleting something. Almost everything improves when there's less of it.

 

[CyranoJ]

I can't quite tell, it sounds like the story was originally close to autobiography, or contained considerable elements directly related to your real life? Or was it just that as the story evolved, it happened to shed light on some part of your past?

Anyway, if it's draining you emotionally and you're not happy with it as a creative product, I'd go with either rewriting it -- maybe to be a little less close to the bone -- or deleting it. You're not doing this for money, you have to go with the option that's healthiest for you.

 

[8letters]

It depends on your plans. This is a free site and you aren't going to get anything out of doing "the right thing." If you want people to be able to enjoy the writing you have published, you can post a comment to Chapter 3 like you've written here and people can still enjoy what you have done. Conversely, if you'd feel better with the whole thing gone, delete it.

The first two chapters of "Heather and Michael" should have been published as one story. Then I got the idea of continuing the story and published chapter 3. Commenters didn't like the direction I was taking the story, which sucked away the enjoyment of writing more chapters. Since then, I've been writing other stories and leaving "Heather and Michael" with just three chapters. Some day, I may finish it. But if I do, I'll delete the original three chapters and republish the whole story at once.

 

[Weird Harold]

But if I do, I'll delete the original three chapters and republish the whole story at once.

^^^

this.

 

[sr71plt]

Delete it. When/if you write another (even on this general theme) don't start posting it until you're all finished and satisfied with it. Your readers have angsts of their own in life. They don't need to take yours on as well.

 

[lovecraft68]

I know you're looking for others opinions, but you have to do what is comfortable for you.

There's a school of thought that when people ask other people, "Hey, what do you think?" that they already know what they want to do and are looking for affirmation.

You said number one delete it is your favorite....so do that. Sounds like you have a lot of negativity involved in this so better to scrap it for a fresh start.

If this gave you some type of revelation then that was the purpose of the story and its now served that purpose.

As for the readers who might be left hanging? When they start paying then they can have the right to complain they didn't get a finished product on a free site and with no effort of their own involved.

 

[Combat323]

I realize in writing chapter 2 so hastily, and doing a terrible editing job, I had also developed the characters in ways that I hadn’t fully anticipated.

This happens to everyone, I think, to good or ill effect. Sometimes you have to write a story wrong, see the mistakes, and go back to correct it.

There is a fourth option: Move on without deleting. Write another story and let your few KB of creation marinate in place. At some point you'll either know for sure that it's unsalvageable or that you want to go back and fix it.

 

[NaokoSmith]

It sounds as if you feel there is a connection between you and your readers, that you still have something to say to them, or that there is something they want to hear from you finishing your story, and you are reluctant to let them down.

But writing the end of the story will be distressing for you now you have come to an emotional resolution yourself through it.

Maybe a compromise could be to write an essay-style resolution to the story. Explain to your readers briefly how you intended to end it, and describe the emotional resolution you have had which changed how you feel about it now. That way you can feel you have done your best by them without upsetting yourself by going through a lot of hard unpaid work for something you no longer value in itself, only for what it has helped you understand.

It may give them better understanding too.

Whatever your decision, it will be the right one. It's your story and for you to decide what you wish to do. As other posters say, your readers have their own lives and their own responsibility for their own lives.

 

[sr71plt]

It sounds as if you feel there is a connection between you and your readers, that you still have something to say to them, or that there is something they want to hear from you finishing your story, and you are reluctant to let them down.

Let's get real. The last chapter to post was a year ago. There aren't any readers waiting around for the next chapter.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Let's get real. The last chapter to post was a year ago. There aren't any readers waiting around for the next chapter.

2. Finish writing it, fix up the first three parts for consistency, and count it as a life-achievement; and for the several readers who’ve asked me if I was going to continue the series.

.....

 

[loquere]

No LIT writer ever goes wrong deleting something. Almost everything improves when there's less of it.

I'm always deleting on advice of my editor, and I'm always keeping back whole submissions on advice of my big head.

 

[Carnevil9]

I'd say delete it from Lit, but keep it somewhere deep on your hard drive. Then re-write it from scratch, using all your new knowledge and insights to craft a better product. Then submit the chapters once a week or so, but not until they've all been written.

After a few years, re-read both versions side-by-side. Should be an interesting voyage of self-discovery.

Michelangelo (the artist, not the turtle) sculpted two works called "The Pieta," concerning Christ's body coming off the cross. The one he did when he was young and hopeful is vastly different from the one he did when he was old and cynical. I think there is a beautiful lesson there. You have a chance to demonstrate a similar (but hopefully more positive) lesson.

 

[sr71plt]

.....

Again, get real. They didn't necessarily ask this year. It takes both an overinflated ego and chutzpah, I think, for an author to expect reader interest--beyond one or two who stumble on the suspended story by accident months later--to be sustained for long periods of time. There are so many completed series here the reader can devote their time and attention to.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Again, get real. They didn't necessarily ask this year. It takes both an overinflated ego and chutzpah, I think, for an author to expect reader interest--beyond one or two who stumble on the suspended story by accident months later--to be sustained for long periods of time. There are so many completed series here the reader can devote their time and attention to.

There are often notes about stories people started reading which have been in suspense for a while and they wish the author would go back and finish them. I had a comment on a story series I've had to leave for quite a while, the other day, asking me to write more.

OP says several readers have asked for the story to be continued, and feels a responsibility to do so. That authorial wish to reach out, even if it's only to a few people who want to know how the story ends, is a good impulse. I believe it should be weighed in the balance against OP's wish not to carry on writing something he now finds painful to go back over.

Everybody else on this thread says delete the story, or save it somewhere-else and delete it from here. I think that is sound advice. Why push yourself to do something which you don't enjoy any more, and get nothing from? However I also think that there is something to be said for respecting readership by finding a way to finish off the story for them, and for yourself as author, so I am putting my view on that side forward.

 

[sr71plt]

Fine. Not everyone wants to get real. Some folks even want to put condom on alligators.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Fine. Not everyone wants to get real. Some folks even want to put condom on alligators.

Duh. Alligators are for handbags! not condoms. Everyone knows that!

 

[Meanderer]

Thank you all for your comments. I'm going to leave chapter 1, add a comment, and delete the others.

I deleted it from home and am feeling happier already.

How do I actually go about deleting my story from Literotica? I couldn't figure it out.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Thank you all for your comments. I'm going to leave chapter 1, add a comment, and delete the others.

I deleted it from home and am feeling happier already.

How do I actually go about deleting my story from Literotica? I couldn't figure it out.

I have never deleted a story! so I'm not quite sure. In the FAQs it says to contact the site owners (Laurel and Manu - you should always do this by Private Message, never by email). I have the feeling if you click on the blue 'approved' next to your story in Submissions, you can delete a story, but I daren't look and check in case I accidentally wipe out one of mine, LOL.

I'm glad you have been able to make a decision and resolve the matter happily.

 

[sr71plt]

Just submit with the original title and "delete" behind it and note in the notes box what you want done.