If you could have one lit do over.

[lovecraft68]

I think its safe to say we have all written a story, posted it then either right away or somewhere down the line said "Shit! I blew it, I could have, should have..."

Some people will actually edit it, but most-and I am one-just let it lie and chalk it up to that's the way it goes.

But if there was one story you could go back in time and change, which is it and what is the thing you would change?

For me it would be "Every Dog Has its Day" from last year. The ending I wanted to go with was grimmer than what ended up on here. In my case I was reading it to my my wife chapter by chapter as I usually do with long works to get her feedback.

When I told her near the end I was planning on killing not only Josh(which I think everyone wanted) but Matt as well because the killer was crazy and had played him-and become a 'dog' to her because he fucked her and she was married.

My wife liked Matt and said "You can't do that". Normally I do what I want anyway, I like her feedback, but never go against the muse. But at the time she was between kidney surgeries and we still thought she would lose one so....she got whatever she wanted at that time and I softened the end and let Matt ride off into the sunset with crazy lady.

Anytime I see any activity on that story now, a comment, a fav, I think "I should have fucking killed Matt."

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I deleted 93 stories a while back when I deleted JAMESBJOHNSON. Theyre on my puter, but that's how I do it. Burn the house down.

 

[Handley_Page]

I'm tempted to to have another go at Mavis

 

[GoldenCojones]

The Party

I wish I'd taken a couple more pages to build the main characters in my story "The Party"

When I write, I always do full write ups on all my characters and I'm finding that because of that I know my characters so well that sometimes I leave out important information about the characters when I write the story. This happened in my story "The Party" and readers feel like the characters act unnaturally in the story. I read their comments and to myself I go "No, it's because ..." and then go and read the story and "Oh, I never told them that."

 

[oggbashan]

Sometimes I think about deleting some of my early stories, particularly Hen Party and Stag Party, because they were bad.

I should either complete, edit or delete Christmas Fairy 1 and 2, because I've written myself into a corner with that story. I have tried several times to write an ending, but I'm stuck.

But I leave them alone. I have more stories to write and going back to older stories takes a considerable effort to remember the writer I was then.

 

[JackLuis]

I made a lot of mistakes in "Spreading Seeds", mostly due to inconsistent editing and I went back and corrected them. Since it is 40 chapters and ~200K words it was a real chore. In the revised edition I split it up into seven 'saga's' of ~40K words each, so that each saga ended with a Red H chapter, in the hope that it would score better.

I haven't posted the edited chapters yet, but I believe I will post it and delete the earlier version.

 

[rjordan]

About 3-4 years ago, I had 20-25 stories posted. I cut it back to my 10 favorites, not necessarily the best rated. I didn't plan to ever rewrite them, but some I probably will. I've added a few new ones in recent months.

I write for myself and I post for myself. I have no idea why I write, but I post because of the discipline it imposes having to get it ready for someone else to see.

rj

 

[49greg]

I'd completely re-do "Between Tim and Tracy". I'm not sure what I would save or what I would change. The two chapters are two thirds of my tries at the LW category, and I want to keep it there, I just haven't made up my mind on improving them.

By improving them I don't think I could get a better score, I just want to make the story better. Right now it sucks.

When/if I do something, I don't know if i'd do the JBJ thing and delete them and start from scratch, or just do a completely new story with a similar title and bill them as a rewrite.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

nuthin'. once it's up, it's up. end of.

 

[49greg]

I wish I'd taken a couple more pages to build the main characters in my story "The Party"

When I write, I always do full write ups on all my characters and I'm finding that because of that I know my characters so well that sometimes I leave out important information about the characters when I write the story. This happened in my story "The Party" and readers feel like the characters act unnaturally in the story. I read their comments and to myself I go "No, it's because ..." and then go and read the story and "Oh, I never told them that."

I like your idea of writing out your character bios. I have one in my head, but so far haven't done a separate write up. I like that. It would certainly help in organizing my thoughts and make writing more consistent, especially in multi chapter stories.

Thanks for the idea.

 

[Saxon_Hart]

I have re read several of mine and thought, "I should have....." but changing an already published story never seemed like a good idea. Live and learn. I did however, clean up and re submit one of my more popular stories.

 

[CeasarBoobage]

There's a 2-part story that I did about five years ago, and....... hory sheet! five fucking years?!? Damn. Uhhh, sorry, got sidetracked... Anywho, this "Party Swap" two-parter. At that time in my mind, I was giggling with glee, thinking it was kind of something cool. No, it's not. It sucks. It sucks hard.

Maybe a dozen times or so, I've wanted to go delete them, but I never get to that part. Why? I'm not 100% sure. From the few times I get feedback on any story, there's always one or two that say they like it, and even though I think they are crazy, maybe I hope that there are a few folks here and there that will actually like that trash. But also I'm thinking that I should leave that POS where it is to remind me of some of the crap that comes out of my typing.

If I could go back in Lit time, I would punch myself in the face for even thinking of "publishing" that shit. Will I delete it now? I want to, but I probably won't. I've had a few glowing reviews from other works, so maybe that "party swap" story is one I need to leave in place to keep my fragile ego in check. Whenever I think that I have the ability to write good stories, that Party Fuckup Extraordinaire reminds me that my shit stinks too.

(PSSSSST: Please don't look it up. This isn't some reverse psychology thing to make you do it. The story sucks. There are better ways to waste an hour of you life, so go clean the toilets or something instead.)

 

[TxRad]

The only do overs I'd like is going back and putting my early stories in the correct categories. I had no understanding of the category system at all.

 

[jsmiam]

I pulled all my stories off of lit for other reasons. I did fix several annoying mistakes (still haven't gotten them all) when switching to my personal blog. And when i find new mistakes, click-clack-clock, fixed in three seconds. It's wonderful!

While I salute and congratulate those who are real honest to goodness published authors who have sold things, i also think it's unnecessary to "play an author on tv" by acting as if real publishing guidelines apply to hacks like me on a website. Find an error, fix it! Books have editions, so it's not entirely as if error corrections never happen in the publishing world either.

And in advance of the shortly arriving post saying poor Laurel is too busy.. She's got time to delete and alter your/our/my posts to the forum, right? She's got time! ;-)

 

[jsmiam]

I pulled all my ... Blah blah ... She's got time! ;-)

I know the main topic was full blown do-overs, not more basic mistakes.

I do pretend I'm an author in with respect to do overs. I leave it somewhere, to end up suffering the same fate that an old book would suffer. Sit on a real or virtual shelf or garage sale folding table, to be seen by accident now and then, for years to come. ;-)

 

[glynndah]

I'd fix the Lizzie one. I hurried through that one.

 

[loquere]

I think its safe to say we have all written a story, posted it then either right away or somewhere down the line said "Shit! I blew it, I could have, should have..."

Some people will actually edit it, but most-and I am one-just let it lie and chalk it up to that's the way it goes.

But if there was one story you could go back in time and change, which is it and what is the thing you would change?

For me it would be "Every Dog Has its Day" from last year. The ending I wanted to go with was grimmer than what ended up on here. In my case I was reading it to my my wife chapter by chapter as I usually do with long works to get her feedback.

When I told her near the end I was planning on killing not only Josh(which I think everyone wanted) but Matt as well because the killer was crazy and had played him-and become a 'dog' to her because he fucked her and she was married.

My wife liked Matt and said "You can't do that". Normally I do what I want anyway, I like her feedback, but never go against the muse. But at the time she was between kidney surgeries and we still thought she would lose one so....she got whatever she wanted at that time and I softened the end and let Matt ride off into the sunset with crazy lady.

Anytime I see any activity on that story now, a comment, a fav, I think "I should have fucking killed Matt."

Most of my collection qualify in my mind....sigh.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I've pulled some over the years to put in a collection on Amazon and some that I didn't like. I wrote one non-consent. Deleted it soon after. I'm still planning to delete a bunch and pare it back to my faves and others that got good reviews.

 

[karaline]

only two of the stories i've written have made it onto Literotica so far. I think i'd change the second one.

My original plan had been to take it up to where it got to at chapter 5 and the two things happened first of all i realised my characters (having taken on a bit of a life of their own) had an unresolved conflict, and in order to resolve it I threw a curveball at my protagonist, giving the story an entirely different arc to the one i'd started with.

So I feel now that its disjointed. It kind of reaches a crescendo in the middle and them lumbers off directionlessly for a while before concluding. The lesson I took is not to start posting instalments before finishing a story. but I find I'm less motivated when I don't have readers waiting for me to update. Le sigh.

And of course the cringe inducing adverb/adjective count that all new writers seem to fall prey to.

 

[GoldenCojones]

I like your idea of writing out your character bios. I have one in my head, but so far haven't done a separate write up. I like that. It would certainly help in organizing my thoughts and make writing more consistent, especially in multi chapter stories.

Thanks for the idea.

You're welcome

Now I've got to get past the problem it causes me. When I re-read "The Summoning" after an excellent critique, I realized I did the same thing. I think I'm rushing to get the story out and forgeting to tell the whole story.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

One of my first. It's no long up and I have no plans to rewrite or re-post - anywhere.

Michelle was the name of the story. It meandered all over the place, it really needed to be tighter. It might have played better as an anthology

 

[oggbashan]

Sometimes I think about deleting some of my early stories, particularly Hen Party and Stag Party, because they were bad.

...

Ouch! Some one favorited Stag Party yesterday.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I'd fix the Lizzie one. I hurried through that one.

I looked at it.

You have talent for punch-line endings, and Lizzie has no real ending. It stops, that's it.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I'm fond of Raymond Chandler's way. He wrote short stories. Made novellas of the short stories. Made fat novels of the novellas.

 

[YDB95]

"The Relapse Door"... I should have ended it with Marguerithe appearing as her true self rather than Tom's fantasy, and Tom still falling in love with her. Oh well.