Has anyone written alternative versions of chapters?

[8letters]

I have a five-chapter story, "A Week at the Lake with My Sister". Readers have not liked the direction the plot took in chapter 4. The first three chapters have 37, 23 and 30 comments. Chapter 4 has 81 comments, the majority of which are negative. I cringe slightly whenever I see that it got another comment.

So I've written an alternative version of chapter 4. I'll need to write an alternative version of chapter 5 to go along with it. When I originally decided to re-write chapter 4, I was planning on taking down all five chapters and publishing the story as one stand-alone story with the revised back half. Readers have suggested that I publish the alternative chapters so that new readers will hopefully read the new back half and then be able to read the original version if they want to.

Has anyone else done something like this? Any advice you can offer?

 

[NotWise]

How did you readers figure out what you wanted to write?

 

[KeithD]

I've written the whole work before starting to post chapters to it, so there's no messing around with it like that. I do include the perspective on a scene from two different characters as separate chapters in some works, and it's a mode that my coauthor and I write most of our shared works in.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never done this and am curious how it ends up, and how different.

I have so many unfinished stories and project ideas that I don't look back. I just look forward to the next project and figure I'll try to incorporate whatever I learned from the old story into the new one.

I haven't read the story but I read some of the comments, and it appears the big complaint is that readers don't like your characters. I would think it would be hard to re-do that convincingly because you already have developed them in three previous chapters.

Incest readers often like romance, and for romance to work the reader must pull for the characters.

Since you've already finished the story you might just try to glean whatever you can from the comments and move on to the next story.

 

[windar]

I have a five-chapter story, "A Week at the Lake with My Sister". Readers have not liked the direction the plot took in chapter 4. The first three chapters have 37, 23 and 30 comments. Chapter 4 has 81 comments, the majority of which are negative. I cringe slightly whenever I see that it got another comment.

So I've written an alternative version of chapter 4. I'll need to write an alternative version of chapter 5 to go along with it. When I originally decided to re-write chapter 4, I was planning on taking down all five chapters and publishing the story as one stand-alone story with the revised back half. Readers have suggested that I publish the alternative chapters so that new readers will hopefully read the new back half and then be able to read the original version if they want to.

Has anyone else done something like this? Any advice you can offer?

I've never done that. With one story my co-author and I did on another site, a few readers submitted alternate endings, more just as kicking around ideas than propossing that we re-write anything. There the story ran on a message board, so the comments are right there with the story. But the final published version was unaltered.

I certainly wouldn't re-write based on negative comments unless you truly believe they are right and your original chapter was poorly written. Do you believe that?

 

[Winter_Fare]

Go ahead and change it! It's not like we're writing on stone tablets. I wouldn't be surprised if the readers have moved on and it gets less traffic, they're a fickle lot x

 

[LongDraw]

Go ahead and change it! It's not like we're writing on stone tablets. I wouldn't be surprised if the readers have moved on and it gets less traffic, they're a fickle lot x

Oh man! You mean this isn't Erotimandments.com?

 

[8letters]

How did you readers figure out what you wanted to write?

My readers just didn't like what I wrote.

I've written the whole work before starting to post chapters to it, so there's no messing around with it like that.

I did that. Posted five chapters over five days.

I do include the perspective on a scene from two different characters as separate chapters in some works, and it's a mode that my coauthor and I write most of our shared works in.

Not what I'm talking about. The plot of the alternate version is radically different than the plot of the original version. The story will end with the same sex scene, but how the characters get there will be very different.

I've never done this and am curious how it ends up, and how different.

I've sent the alternate Chapter 4 to a couple of people to see what they think. If it sucks, I'll leave things as they stand. If you're willing to read the story, I'll send you the alternate version for your comments.

I have so many unfinished stories and project ideas that I don't look back. I just look forward to the next project and figure I'll try to incorporate whatever I learned from the old story into the new one.

I haven't read the story but I read some of the comments, and it appears the big complaint is that readers don't like your characters. I would think it would be hard to re-do that convincingly because you already have developed them in three previous chapters.

Incest readers often like romance, and for romance to work the reader must pull for the characters.

Since you've already finished the story you might just try to glean whatever you can from the comments and move on to the next story.

I've ignored the issue for over three years. After a while, I started thinking about how I could rewrite the story to address the readers' complaints. Now, it's a challenge. As I'm recycling a lot of the material from the original version, it wasn't that long to write.

I've never done that. With one story my co-author and I did on another site, a few readers submitted alternate endings, more just as kicking around ideas than propossing that we re-write anything. There the story ran on a message board, so the comments are right there with the story. But the final published version was unaltered.

I certainly wouldn't re-write based on negative comments unless you truly believe they are right and your original chapter was poorly written. Do you believe that?

I wrote the story as kind of a mystery story, with a big twist in the fourth chapter. I thought readers would enjoy that I had been giving them clues that the big twist was coming but still managed to surprise them. The readers hated the big twist.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I've seen alternate versions of chaptered stories posted on Lit over the years. I believe the biggest drawback is that you wind up spending a lot of time for very little return; only dedicated fans of the original story are going to bother reading those alternate chapters. You may have enough dedicated followers to pull it off.

Since you were considering posting the entire revised story as a single entry, perhaps that's the route you should take. That allows you to leave the original chaptered versions on the site, while drawing eyeballs to a new standalone story. Put in an author's note at the beginning to let readers know what you've done. Readers who already read the original can skip to the revised ending, while new readers can settle in to enjoy the story in its entirety.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I'm thinking about a 'revised version' - I wrote a series where a woman agrees to fuck her male friend if he quits smoking for three months. They haggle so he gets some fun activity with her at intervals during that time. However the main thread of the series is she posts an ad for him to find a man, whom he eventually gets together with.

Given that it's mostly m/m content, it had to go in Gay Male, but out of curiosity I tried cutting out all the m/m content to see what was left. It's actually quite a coherent story which would make a good one with a little work, for an audience who won't have seen it before. I was wanting to flesh out the main female character to help with a story featuring her 15 years earlier, so the more stories I can create for the least work, the better, right?

 

[MrPixel]

... Since you were considering posting the entire revised story as a single entry, perhaps that's the route you should take. That allows you to leave the original chaptered versions on the site, while drawing eyeballs to a new standalone story. Put in an author's note at the beginning to let readers know what you've done. Readers who already read the original can skip to the revised ending, while new readers can settle in to enjoy the story in its entirety.

I'm having to consider this possibility in a serial I'm working on at the moment. The now first chapter was written as a standalone and it spawned a two-part sequel, the second half being arguably the best-accepted (still 'H' after two months, my only one). The sequel in turn has given rise to something like seven more chapters not yet published, with another in embryonic stages.

The problem I'm having at the moment is the characters' voices have matured along with my writing style. The original and sequel are sexual romps, subsequent writings lean towards romantic humor within a real story without nearly as much explicit sex. I'm debating re-writes on the first three to tamp down the overt sex, fix any continuity issues, and republish it all as a novel, currently around 225 pages and 70K words.

Or I can just leave it all alone and have fun.

 

[Voboy]

No. Never. I publish what I want to publish. This isn't a choose-your-own adventure for me; if readers want me to do something different, they can just choose not to read the next thing I produce.

On the RARE occasions that I do directly connected chaptered work, all of it is finished before I publish any of it. My ongoing SF series comes in fits and starts, but I'd certainly not change my plans based on comments.

 

[ElectricBlue]

So what if readers don't like your story?

It's bizarre to me that you'd even consider re-hashing a story after three years just to appease a few vocal readers who didn't like something or other. I'd say put the energy into something new, not something old. That way, you'll have another story for a few vocal readers to moan about .

 

[JGittes]

Have you monetized the story as it stands now? Will you make more if you change it? If the answer to either is no, don't do it.

Read up on George Lucas changing the original Star Wars and the fan dismay that's caused. In his case, he can indulge his 'artistic' impulses and blow off the fan dislike of his changes because he's made more money than God.

 

[Dingo_Triplesix]

I have published a "NonHuman" story about a mermaid once at LIT (Germany), where the plot has a horror twist for ending. The readers liked the story, but complained about the pitch black ending. I didn´t change the story, but when I published the same story elsewhere I changed the ending. Not to a HEA, but to something bearable for most readers. At this other publications I have a notice directing to the original version to check for the readers.

I myself like the original horror final better. But then, as soon as you start publishing the story does not solely belong to yourself any longer, that´s my feeling about it. So I think it´s absolutely appropriate to change something if you want to.

At the moment I have another project in the pipeline. It is a cuckold story, where the father bullies the son. About 75% of the story is the buildup, from soft hints of the father´s superiority to the point where he fucks the wife of the son right before his eyes. At this point the son cracks mentally.

The last 25% will be written in three or four alternative versions, all published parallely:

1) The son gets crazy and finds himself supporting the cruelity against him, licking the cunt of his wive afterwards etc. So a typical cuckold ending.

2) He stabs the two lovers together on their bed, then he goes on, fucks his mother and starts a great managment career, as he has left all fears behind him - nothing what ever could happen will be worse than the sight of his father fucking the beloved wife.

3) He kills himself besides the lovers. The last comment he overhears is a snorting remark of his father, that this is the best solution for all.

4) Maybe a fourth one, sailing under "humor": Exactly at the moment he has come to a decision what to do besides the bed of the two lovers, an asteroid crashes the whole town. So unfortunately the reader will never know about his decision...

It would be an interesting experiment to post all this in LW. The readers could vote their favourite ending and downvote all the others - I think they will be happy about this ;-) With some luck the first part - which is neutral, so to say - can avoid the downvoting.

Do you think this could work?

Love
Dingo

 

[Blind_Justice]

I have written alternative versions of chapters, yes. But I don't publish them since those rewrites aim at improving either the pacing, flow or details of a chapter, not to cause an alternate reality. The last four chapters of "Mud & Magic" have gone through several revisions and alterations, sometimes deleting entire scenes for the sake of expediency or adding stuff to flesh out other ideas. I already know where I want to go, but getting there proves sometimes a tad difficult. That's where my beta readers and editor come in, they usually let me know which parts can be elaborted upon or cut. I do reserve final judgment.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I started writing to post here one year ago, and I naively picked the Loving Wives category for my "Getting Started - ..." series. After the brutal comments on that spouse sharing series, I took the constructive comments and re-wrote the series, starting with three new chapters to better build the main characters.

As I re-wrote (to improve the quality of my story-telling), I mentioned in the Author's Note at the beginning of each that I was replacing and removing the older version with the newer "Lifestyle ..." series chapter.

My stories only manage an average of 3 to 5,000 views, and average rate around a 4 or slightly better.

My experience with this LitE site has been mixed, realizing its sometimes other authors attacking my stories and 1-bombing for reasons unrelated to the story quality or content. And the position of the story on that day's New list (really, on the bottom of Lit page THREE with about 150 stories ahead of it starting out of the gate on Day 1?) drastically reduced the views volume of a chapter in the middle of the series.

So, there are no one-to-one comparisons of how re-writing will work out.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Not a chapter or part of a series but I have written different ends to a single story. It's called Homecoming Party. The scores will tell you which ending the readers liked. It's in Loving Wives.

Other than that one story, I have never thought about writing an alternate part.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I've got a macro edition of this quandary happening, in fact. My earliest chapters in my Alexaverse are horrendously out of canon with how I currently have things, and people occasionally call me out on the inconsistency.

That being said, I'm rebooting the entire early story to bring it into line with where I currently have it. That's, oh, seventeen chapters. It's the same story and outcome, but there's a LOT more detail to fill in and personalities have changed immensely. I'd originally planned for Alex & Alexa to only be six chapters or so, at best. Instead, it ended up being seventeen and expanded into a much larger universe.

And I'm not doing this because the occasional person wonks at me (they all sound like Miss Othmar after a while), but I personally NEED to reboot this thing for my own sanity. It drives me bonkers that I've created this inconsistency. One thing being a series writer has taught me is to never paint myself into a corner.

Two things to consider, OP...

1) Do YOU personally like the direction and outcome of your original chapter 4? If you like it, it it suits YOU, then to Hell with them.

2) You're entitled, as an author, to care what your readers think. If you wish to change it because you made them unhappy, then by all means, change the chapter. Just keep in mind that if give them a centimetre, they'll take a kilometre, and you'll start to feel like you've lost control. You don't want to be your own ghost writer for these consumers of free erotica.

Do what's important to you here, whether it's pleasing yourself or the reader.

 

[8letters]

Since you were considering posting the entire revised story as a single entry, perhaps that's the route you should take. That allows you to leave the original chaptered versions on the site, while drawing eyeballs to a new standalone story. Put in an author's note at the beginning to let readers know what you've done. Readers who already read the original can skip to the revised ending, while new readers can settle in to enjoy the story in its entirety.

I like this idea. As it's been over three years since the story has been published, my guess is that there are lots of readers who haven't read it.

-- Aside --
I have the feeling based on comments that there's a lot of churn of the readership of Literotica. I post only once or twice a year, and I feel like a lot of the people leaving comments have not read any of my stories before. Do you agree or disagree?
-- End of aside --

I agree that if I publish only the two new alternative chapters, very few readers will read them.

 

[8letters]

Two things to consider, OP...

1) Do YOU personally like the direction and outcome of your original chapter 4? If you like it, it it suits YOU, then to Hell with them.

It's a brother-sister story. The brother and sister are Kaitlyn and Brandon. At the start, Kaitlyn sets Brandon up with her long-time best friend, Joanna. Kaitlyn is dating Paul. As I wrote the story, I didn't care that much about Joanna - she was just a vehicle for getting Kaitlyn and Brandon together.

In chapters 2 & 3, Kaitlyn is manipulating Joanna and Paul to get them together. In chapter 4, Joanna seduces Paul and then tells Kaitlyn and Brandon about it. She leaves to be Paul's girlfriend. That leaves Brandon and Kaitlyn to become boyfriend and girlfriend. I was happy with chapter 4 as it got Brandon and Kaitlyn together. I was focused on the end game, and chapter 4 was a plausible step to there.

I misjudged a lot of things in writing the story, and they all came together in chapter 4. Paul was much more of a dislikeable character than I had intended. It always meant for Kaitlyn to be clearly the more attractive choice for Brandon, but it turned out that Joanna was the most likeable character in the story. Readers didn't like that Kaitlyn manipulated Joanna into giving up Brandon for the loser Paul. And readers really didn't like Joanna cheating on Brandon and then dumping him. So readers hated Kaitlyn for screwing over Brandon and Joanna for her own personal benefit.

At the end of this post, I'll include a comment I got that discussed the problems with the story in great detail.

2) You're entitled, as an author, to care what your readers think. If you wish to change it because you made them unhappy, then by all means, change the chapter. Just keep in mind that if give them a centimetre, they'll take a kilometre, and you'll start to feel like you've lost control. You don't want to be your own ghost writer for these consumers of free erotica.

I think this isn't much of a problem for me. I just really missed the mark with this story on how the big plot twist would be accepted. I think the ending was solid, but I screwed up how I got there. I've got plans to re-write my first story (the writing is really, really bad). But other than that, I don't have any plans on re-writing anything else. Despite many, many requests, I don't write sequels.

A comment from reader WildJokah on the problems with the story and thoughts on how to correct them:

I saw on your blog you might post alternate versions of chapters 4 & 5 of this series along with another post pointing out how unhelpful most negative comments are, so I decided to come back to this story and try to give some opinions I hope are constructive and helpful.

There’s been a few times across your works where characters give long explanations of details that seem like the writer is taking them over to give information rather than the character sharing something. That’s present here too but compounded by the amount of revelations about the plotting and manipulations going on, which makes dealing out that information harder to do naturally. I also think the story’s hindered by the ‘stuck at the lake house’ aspect. In general a group at a lake house is a pretty fun plot point but here I think it didn’t feel necessary for anything that happens and hindered the story to a degree.

Focusing on the later chapters, I think the plot makes it hard to not get more negative feedback than normal since it basically shifts toward cuckolding, which always gets some degree of negativity when the story isn’t centered on those aspects. I find stories that go there tend to be more enjoyable when the protagonist is the bull or otherwise gets more out of things, basically the readers want the protagonist to ‘win’ and generally see the bull as the winner. Here it feels like Brandon’s lost as even his victory of having a 3some with Kaitlyn and Joanna is tainted by Paul’s intrusion in their relationship.

From the beginning Paul felt needlessly tacked on. I think you could’ve had basically the same story if not improved it by not including him and focusing more on the girls and Brandon, especially since by the end Paul just adds a needlessly complex aspect to the relationship that’s inherently unappealing to many readers. Even the money aspect doesn’t seem relevant since it’s not entirely unbelievable that 3 people could get a decent place by pooling their money.

The fourth chapter makes Kaitlyn come across like a villain that’s gotten everything she wanted while Brandon seems like a powerless idiot. That’s basically cemented when he accepts Joanna not only coming back to him immediately after dumping him for someone with a bigger wallet, but doing so knowing she’s going to continue to have sex with the other guy. Having them talking about how they love each other makes her seem even worse, and makes him seem more pathetic. Him being with Kaitlyn, whose manipulations make her far less appealing, doesn’t seem like a victory, certainly not enough of one to counter any emotional reaction to being dumped by someone he supposedly loves. Having him readily accept everything happening to him without putting up a fight or having any negative reaction makes it seem like he has no agency. Because of these things Brandon comes across moronic, passive, and spineless which makes both women’s interest in him questionable and further strains the story. By the end the story feels like the tale of a Brandon, living dildo for a manipulator and a gold digger. Essentially, Brandon doesn’t win, everyone else wins and he’s just along for it.

I think having Brandon figure out what Kaitlyn’s up to, see through her plots, outsmart her, turn things around on her and Joanna, stand up for himself, lash out, find a way to get Paul’s money without involving him in the relationship, or take a more active role in events would’ve helped the story greatly. Personally, I would’ve liked to see Brandon a bit more emotional after the breakup. It would show that he actually cared deeply for Joanna and his reaction would also impact Kaitlyn, which could help to humanize her, especially if he turns her away and pulls away from both girls which would obviously effect them. As is, it feels like he doesn’t really care about anything. There’s so much emotional drama in the story that’s left untouched.

Without altering the ending too drastically or expanding the story even further I think it’d be interesting to see him realize what’s going up and build on the drama by having him not do the switch. Maybe after the blowjob have him piece together the things Kaitlyn doesn’t tell him so he seems smarter. He’s heartbroken about the girl he nearly told he loved dumping him for someone he thinks is a shallow, rich dimwit, and that sits with him throughout the day until he’s angry and bitter, but he’s not the type to confront anyone so when the parents leave them alone and the other 3 are expecting to swap he gets up and tells them to enjoy themselves and goes to his room, locking his door and putting on headphones so he doesn’t have to hear them. When the girls try to talk to him the next day he basically ignores them, this could be when you let the reader know what happened after he left as they try to tell him. You could have it be a moment where he might crack and just forgive them and let it be but he steadies himself and blows them off since even without the swap and even if they didn't do anything after he left, he knows Joanna was dumping him for Paul and Kaitlyn manipulated things to arrange it all. The emotional impact of those things still hit him and the reader but him acting up screws with their plans, giving him more impact on events and more agency in the story.

When they get home he could leave, maybe just to stay with a friend until he figures out what he’s gonna do, but him leaving sets off his parent’s worries about him becoming distant like his cousins, which is why he eventually has to visit them and be forced to meet at least Kaitlyn. That’s when she informs him about what’s happened since he left which could be weeks or months without requiring too many additions to the story. If you want to keep the thing with them using Paul to pay for their place you could have Kaitlyn talk about how Joanna’s stringing him along while Kaitlyn hasn’t been with anyone, that way it seems like she’s willing to give up something to be with him, which doesn’t really counter her negatives but at least hints that she’s willing to sacrifice something to be with Brandon instead of being unaffected and just getting everything she wants. It also diminishes him being cuckolded to a degree for those who dislike that since he isn’t with Joanna at that point and it could be stressed more that she’s using Paul for money until she gets what she really wants with Brandon.

Personally I’d not involve Paul at that point, I’d probably have Paul confront Brandon on the last day after he didn’t go through with the swap, have Brandon say something that cuts deep enough to make Paul swing at him and go into a brawl until Brandon is pulled off Paul to build tension and drama leading into the end, plus it helps give Brandon a personal ‘win’ over Paul while making both girls lose interest in Paul since he attacked Brandon. If you don’t want to have the choice of people coming to pick them up then I’d wait to have them officially break up with Paul until they got back home and push the tension of the ride home a bit. Otherwise I’d make the confrontation and brawl happen when Brandon is waiting for someone to come pick him up so he can leave earlier, after which Brandon maybe goes home, packs some things and leaves home so the girls and his family return and find him gone until he’s basically forced to return, maybe for a function or just to appease his parents, and basically forced to meet Kaitlyn face to face. You could have Kaitlyn basically blackmail Paul to stay silent about what happened at the Lake between her and Brandon and even give them a bunch of cash for her silence about whatever she has on him. That not only plays into her manipulative nature but also has her using it to protect Brandon in a way, which could help her the reader view her more positively.

I know it’s not perfect, I think even all of this would only do so much without greatly expanding the story, but I hope this shows that I think there’s a great story here but the negatives compounded each other until it fell far short of it’s potential. I sincerely hope this is more helpful than disheartening because even if I don’t enjoy the alternative chapters I’m at least interested in seeing what you do with them and I’m looking forward to whatever else you share.

 

[LexxRuthless]

-- Aside --
I have the feeling based on comments that there's a lot of churn of the readership of Literotica. I post only once or twice a year, and I feel like a lot of the people leaving comments have not read any of my stories before. Do you agree or disagree?
-- End of aside --

This is almost certainly the case. Every time I see I've attracted a new follower, I look at their profile. Most of the time, I find my name at the end of a long list of other authors that reader is following. That is still usually the case, but what I'm seeing is more and more folks who started their Literotica profile in the last 2-3 years, rather than folks who have been members for a decade or more. There seem to be a lot of really new members who started their accounts last year or early this year. Of course, that includes the selection bias that they liked my latest stories enough to start following me. Not sure my observation is anything more than anecdotal.

Back from the aside, I've considered going back and rewriting my first series from about the fifth chapter. What stops me is the recurring advice from some of the "old hands" here in the AH -- let it go, move on, and write something new instead.

 

[JGittes]

...

Back from the aside, I've considered going back and rewriting my first series from about the fifth chapter. What stops me is the recurring advice from some of the "old hands" here in the AH -- let it go, move on, and write something new instead.

We've often discussed a divide in authorial approach here on AH between plotters and pantsers. It's a continuum, not a sharp divide, and I fall primarily on the pantser side allowing that I need to plot out some aspects of my stories or I get hopelessly mired.

I've noticed another 'stylistic' divide between authors as I've written more. On one side are authors whose story ideas seem to appear like ripe fruit on a tree to be picked, prepared, packaged, and taken to market. On the other side are authors who can't sleep at night because of the images filling their heads and the only way to rest is to structure the chaos through writing. It's not that stark of a contrast, and they both use the same tools to achieve their goals, but the 'fruit tree' group seems to get an idea, work it up, send it out, and move on. The 'interior chaos' group rarely is satisfied; it can always be better.

I've noticed that those who say move on usually have long lists of stories in a variety of categories. They learn by writing, not rewriting. It shouldn't be surprising that I'm not in that group, but the other. I learn best by rewriting. I fully admit that I sometimes avoid writing new material by rewriting old stuff, (I'm retired, doing very well, don't need any income from writing new stuff, sue me,) but I'm trying to make sense of the chaos (not literal chaos, I'm a relatively well-functioning person) in my head. Making sure I've got part of it nailed down helps me more confidently move forward.

Neither of these approaches is right in an absolute sense. It's like the contrast between an extrovert and an introvert; honestly understanding where you stand makes negotiating the world made up of both, easier.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've noticed another 'stylistic' divide between authors as I've written more. On one side are authors whose story ideas seem to appear like ripe fruit on a tree to be picked, prepared, packaged, and taken to market. On the other side are authors who can't sleep at night because of the images filling their heads and the only way to rest is to structure the chaos through writing. It's not that stark of a contrast, and they both use the same tools to achieve their goals, but the 'fruit tree' group seems to get an idea, work it up, send it out, and move on. The 'interior chaos' group rarely is satisfied; it can always be better.

I've noticed that those who say move on usually have long lists of stories in a variety of categories. They learn by writing, not rewriting. It shouldn't be surprising that I'm not in that group, but the other. I learn best by rewriting. I fully admit that I sometimes avoid writing new material by rewriting old stuff, (I'm retired, doing very well, don't need any income from writing new stuff, sue me,) but I'm trying to make sense of the chaos (not literal chaos, I'm a relatively well-functioning person) in my head. Making sure I've got part of it nailed down helps me more confidently move forward.

That's a nice analogy. I'm definitely a fruit tree writer - indeed, a recent story is titled "The Picnic - Eating Fruit".

I learn from my last story by saying,"Yes, that works," or "no, don't do that again," but I apply the learning to the next story, not the last one. That's the most efficient way for me, because I have a set of new words with which to get better, rather than futzing with the last set - which we've already established, might be flawed, so why bother?

The way I see it, your best story might be your next one, but it won't be your last one. Or if it is, stop now; but then where would we be? That would be hubris, to think you've already done your best.

 

[windar]

One pay site I'm on has an entire section of "Second Editions". In periods when I'm feeling bereft of new ideas, I've considered re-working an old one. I started on one once and didn't get far. It's actually no easier than writing a new one and perhaps harder because you don't have a free hand. Also, I've never seen any of them on the Best Seller lists, even when the original story was.

The truth is that your readers, having accomplished their goal, move on (please wipe yourself and/or shower folks) so you probably should, too...