Is a rewrite wise?

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

This is something that's still a long way off, but I've been thinking about rewriting the first series I published on Lit, and want to find out if it's a stupid idea...

Basically, it's an I/T story that had an interesting opening, scored well, and kind of grew beyond what it was initially meant to (I was pantsing it). The purpose of publishing was to learn lessons, and I've definitely learnt a lot of them! So, the intention of a rewrite would be to do a few things:

1. Fix pacing issues by extending some scenes and shorting others. Also, reorganising parts so that they're a little longer and flow better.
2. Adding additional content now that I don't feel pressured by self-imposed deadlines.
3. Rectifying small (and large) errors that slipped past the initial editing.

I won't change the main plot because I believe that would be short-changing people who already read the thing. If a returning reader does want to reread it, I believe I'll add enough new content to keep them interested. Obviously, this all would entail deleting the story and resubmitting (thus, losing all the comments, views, and ratings), but I'm kinda okay with that.

The final thing I'll say is that I don't intend on doing this anytime soon. I have ten story outlines for other pieces/categories that I want to finish first, so it's not a case of getting stuck in a loop. I think...

Is everything I've said here a stupid idea, or is it something that authors sometimes do? If you have done it before, how has it worked out for you?

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Before I recently retired, I spent the last 23 years maintaining and enhancing software. I was always rewriting and tweaking code to make it better or different. I've carried that same thinking to my stories I've published here on Lit. I've tweaked several of my stories to fix issues with continuity and insert hooks so that later stories can tie into them. I'm sure Laurel would like it if I didn't keep editing my stories, but until it is no longer allowed, I intend to continue doing it.

So, what I'm saying without really saying it is, it's up to you to decide if you want to do that. I'm just saying I would because I intend to go back and fix my first submission one of these days.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

In my case, a rewrite is sometimes a necessity. One of my stories has ballooned WAY beyond its original scope, to the place where my original early stories and arcs are not consistent with current canon.

That being said, in the near future, I'm more or less rebooting the early stuff to bring it into line with my current lore. It'll be the same story, just more detailed and maintaining consistency with what I've done since.

If you need to rewrite or reboot, do it. Fans of the story will understand and forgive.

 

[NotWise]

Is everything I've said here a stupid idea, or is it something that authors sometimes do? If you have done it before, how has it worked out for you?

You have to balance this one out for yourself.

Editing an existing story doesn't gain you much in terms of reader response, but if you would gain personally by it, then that might be more important.

It might also be possible to take the story down and resubmit it as a new story, but you might want to clear that with Laurel first.

 

[tomlitilia]

I wouldn't bother, mainly for my own sake, but also for the readers. If somehow changing something to chapter 3 will make chapter 10 better, I wouldn't expect readers to reread all previous chapter to solve that for me. I think the only way to avoid issues like that is to hold off with submission until the entire story is done. And as for my own sake, I have more ideas than time to write, so I rather spend my effort on new rather than old stories.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Once it's up, unless there are glaring errors, I leave them alone. And if some make comments about other things, I just remind myself they are getting what they paid for and continue on and put the lesson learned in new works.

 

[AlphaLyon]

Art is never finished; only abandoned.

I say re-write if you feel it needs it.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't rewrite stories, although sometimes, looking back at them post-publication, I wish I had done some things differently. I prefer to move on to the next story. I see my old, imperfect stories as a record of where I was as a writer in the past, and as providing a standard I want to remind myself to improve upon.

But I also feel that if the Site provides you tools to use, then you should feel free to use them. That includes the ability to revise your story. If you feel the result will be a better story, then revise it.

 

[HeyAll]

I've taken down old stories and done heavy re-writes and re-submitted them. There are a number of readers who've commented "I've read this before" and being unsure if it was mine or not.

I think it's a good idea overall if you're not totally happy with what's there.

If it's minor edits, then I'll just submit an edit.

 

[TadOverdon]

Publishing older work here at lit for the first time, I'm sometimes tempted to "fix" things like those flip-phones and VHS tapes. But...no.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've rewritten some old stories, but I usually I wait at least a year before I do that. I'm not sure of the exact number - maybe ten of them. I usually put them on a different site, sometimes with the same title. I've also put a couple on Lit with different titles, but no one has yet noticed the similarities between the two versions. Usually the new version is better; but one rewrite is my limit. After that I'm done with it.

There are a couple of old stories that may be unfixable, so I leave them alone (they're usually mediocre rather than being outright terrible.) But one never knows - I may get an inspiration some day.

So if you think you could do it better the second time around, then go for it.

 

[KeithD]

Once it's up, unless there are glaring errors, I leave them alone. And if some make comments about other things, I just remind myself they are getting what they paid for and continue on and put the lesson learned in new works.

This. I just rewrote a 19,000-word story posted to Literotica into a 30,000-word novella for the marketplace, but with an expansion of the activity and recasting of the theme. I was essentially expanding and skewing the story, and I thought that was rewarding in a creative way. But I don't pull, just tinker with, and resubmit anything here. I had a use for the basic story setup elsewhere.

I could see you reworking it and submitting it elsewhere to see how well that would be received.

 

[PoisonPen33]

I'm about to finish rewriting the 19-chapter story that was my first story here on Literotica, and I plan to ask Laurel to take down the originals so I can post the "new" chapters as a fresh story.

My first story felt like a first draft, and there are glaring errors I'd love to fix, especially how it ended. They remake/reboot/remaster movies and video games all the time, literary stories are fair game too!

 

[LAHomedog]

You have to balance this one out for yourself.

Editing an existing story doesn't gain you much in terms of reader response, but if you would gain personally by it, then that might be more important.

It might also be possible to take the story down and resubmit it as a new story, but you might want to clear that with Laurel first.

How do you do that? I have a story that I thought was my best in terms of it being a fully dimensional story with a lot of potential. It laid there like a latke in terms of how many readers and also rating. It simply never got traction.

I would like to take it down and reso it, but I have never had success emailing Laurel in the past, or getting a published story deleted.

What are the proper steps to take? Thanks!

 

[KeithD]

but I have never had success emailing Laurel in the past,

Laurel apparently doesn't open e-mails. The way to connect with her is through the Private Messages system (upper right on this page if you have messaging turned on).

 

[NotWise]

How do you do that? I have a story that I thought was my best in terms of it being a fully dimensional story with a lot of potential. It laid there like a latke in terms of how many readers and also rating. It simply never got traction.

I would like to take it down and reso it, but I have never had success emailing Laurel in the past, or getting a published story deleted.

What are the proper steps to take? Thanks!

These are Laurel's instructions for having a story removed:

Hi!

Hope you had a great weekend!

First, I want to let you know that you have every right to remove your submissions from the site at any time for any reason.

Be aware that we do not store site submission data - including votes, comments, and the text itself. Once it is deleted from our servers, we cannot restore it.

Also know that if you submit a new edit the story, we will post it as new but it will not be eligible for any contests because it is not new to the site.

For security purposes and to make sure you (as the author) are the one making the removal request, you must follow this procedure: log into your account and create a submission titled "REMOVE". In the body of the submission, put the names of the submissions you wish removed along with (optionally) the reason for their removal.

If you want all of your work removed, you can write "DELETE ALL" in one form rather than listing every submission.

If you want all of one series removed, you can write "DELETE [SERIESNAME]" in one form rather than listing every submission.

Submission removals are usually done within 2-5 days.

Thanks for your support, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Laurel

 

[ruddygore]

There's an author in the Science Fiction that is doing this so that he ends up with two versions on the site. The original story will be TITLE and the edited one is TITLE REMASTERED. He did note that the new versions are ones he worked up to publish online as ebooks and the originals weren't quite up to snuff for that.

 

[DanDraper]

I've only done it for a few stories when I realized how it could be written better. It worked out for a few cases, but it doesn't always work as well as you hoped.

With one story I rewrote, the original version was good and had good responses to it, but I decided to rewrite it to fix some grammar and plot issues. It looked much better, but after that it didn't get the good responses that it originally had.

Rewriting a story is not a bad idea if you think it's absolutely necessary, but you have to be careful because you may not get the response you were expecting.

 

[PennameWombat]

I've only edited and resubmitted one story. I was working on a collection of three related sequels that all branched off from the events in that story and these three overlapped in time but took the various characters mostly off on their own adventures. I realized the first story had an error that made little impact on that first story in isolation but if anyone DID read all of them would show up as a glaring continuity issue. So I fixed it but it didn't seem anyone noticed the change or if they did no one commented.

When I reread my earliest stories here I see various bits of authorial clumsiness but nothing that hits me to the point I'd rewrite. Most importantly those early stories did tell the tales I wanted to tell. Most also have decent ratings and I can't think of much that would improve their reception.

In various stories I also see the occasional spelling or grammar boo boo that leaked through but well, nothing that badly affects the meaning.

 

[_Lynn_]

I see my old, imperfect stories as a record of where I was as a writer in the past, and as providing a standard I want to remind myself to improve upon.

Ditto. My first stuff sucks. I know that . . . now.

 

[Sextified]

I won't change the main plot because I believe that would be short-changing people who already read the thing. If a returning reader does want to reread it, I believe I'll add enough new content to keep them interested. Obviously, this all would entail deleting the story and resubmitting (thus, losing all the comments, views, and ratings), but I'm kinda okay with that.

Is everything I've said here a stupid idea, or is it something that authors sometimes do? If you have done it before, how has it worked out for you?

I am currently doing this for the entire first book of my three novel series. I had posted all three of them on another website, a chapter at a time, but I have long since realized that serializing the story that way really hurt it.

Rewriting and expanding a clumsier lengthy work can be a daunting task, one that shouldn't be taken lightly.

< < < < > > > >

Personally, I would 'reimagine' your original story, and leave the old one in place just as it is. Most fans hate to have one of their Favorites disappear, and they could lose touch with you, if it is your only work in their lists. I personally think that replacing the content of the old online story is usually the better way to go than deleting it.

But if you really are fixing and expanding so much of the story, why not treat it as a totally new effort? Just use the same title, as suggested, and add a qualifier to it. "Bob and Jane finally have fun! The 2021 Version!"

< < < < > > > >

In my own struggling efforts, a brand new take on the old or similar story would have been a much better idea. That is what I have now ended up doing anyway. The entire first book is now open to major changes. I no longer am trying to "Edit" or "Patch" my way over old problems. For my poor level of skill, that just created a mess of tense and plot errors, and far too many "Show don't Tell" muddles.

What IS working is reading the next chapter carefully, throwing in a dozen hard returns to isolate the older work, and just redoing the updated 'intention of it' from scratch. All in my newer style, with all the extra hard earned writer tricks and insights brought to bear. Then I search thru and compare the old versus new version, double check that I haven't missed a critical plot point, and then delete the placeholder and move on to the next chapter.

For me, writing is so much faster than doing 'heavy editing' and 'major fixes'.

If your old story is truly easy to edit, and isn't THAT much of a mess, then maybe you don't really need to redo it after all?

The reason I am finally 'liking' what I am writing on the first book again comes from a much different reason though.

I finally have the time, and have given myself permission, to add back in all the subplots and ideas I had to harshly cut out of the original story. My long caged up "plot bunnies" are VERY happy in their brand new homes! I have three books of material to pull from after all! Even better, I decided to add new characters and threads to compliment the action, and bring even more meaning to the original sections as I rework them.

The first rewrite attempt became a dreary, burdensome and unsuccesful process. However, I have since come to LIKE and ENJOY the challenge of such a monumental task. It is good exercise, fixing your old work. I have found that some of the oldest chapters of the book are BETTER than my newer short stories. They had a better sense of pace, emotion and 'immediateness' to them that readers really liked.

< < < < > > > >

I think that there is no real harm revisiting and reworking older stories, as long as they are shorter works, and not well disguised patches of quicksand that will drown you as an author if given the chance!

If you do your rewrite attempt with a well defined goal, and a clear beginning and ending already worked out, I'd say go ahead!

But do take the time to learn both the good and bad sides of your original efforts, and consider keeping it intact here on the site, for comparison and nostalgia.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

Revisiting old work is always daunting. Sometimes I look at earlier stuff and think it's better than what I've done subsequently. Other times, I want to crawl into a hole out of embarrassment!

The idea of publishing a "Remaster" alongside the original is very interesting! This would make a lot of sense in the run-up to a sequel, and I can see a lot of rewrites occur in the context of something like a trilogy.

All-in-all, there's a fair bit to think about, but as always, the community is super helpful.

 

[PriestOfIshtar]

This is something that's still a long way off, but I've been thinking about rewriting the first series I published on Lit, and want to find out if it's a stupid idea...

This has been a useful thread: interesting to see different people's approach, as well as technical guidance for how variants might be accomplished.

Personally, as this is a free site and it's all in good fun, I am not taking it too seriously. I publish chapters as I pop 'em out, and on re-reading I see some glitches, both at the copy-edit level and more substantive, or I see ways in which I may should have taken a different turn with the plot.

Rather than address any of that here, I go back and edit my source documents, in case I decide to try publishing it elsewhere. For literotica, I let the flawed draft stand as part of the historical record.