Authors, are you ever really satisfied with your stories?

[millennium_bard]

I know this thread has been done before, But being the lazy beast that I am I am just too slothful to look it up.

I'm only really satisfied with one of my stories. And that one I still take a lot of flack about the ending. That is Ishmael

Most of my other stories are either still in progress or I am seriously considering a thorough re-write or both.
How about you? Are you satisfied with the way your stories turned out?
Or are you like me and think, "Damn, I wish I had done that differently."?

 

[Katyusha]

I know this thread has been done before, But being the lazy beast that I am I am just too slothful to look it up.

I'm only really satisfied with one of my stories. And that one I still take a lot of flack about the ending. That is Ishmael

Most of my other stories are either still in progress or I am seriously considering a thorough re-write or both.
How about you? Are you satisfied with the way your stories turned out?
Or are you like me and think, "Damn, I wish I had done that differently."?

There's one story I have on here that I think needs a complete re-write, as in, pull it off the site, delete the whole thing and start over.

The rest of them...I'll notice problems and mistakes and what-not with them, but whether or not I'm satisfied with them generally depends heavily on how satisfied I was when I first posted it.

 

[Liar]

Pretty much yep.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I know this thread has been done before, But being the lazy beast that I am I am just too slothful to look it up.

I'm only really satisfied with one of my stories. And that one I still take a lot of flack about the ending. That is Ishmael

Most of my other stories are either still in progress or I am seriously considering a thorough re-write or both.
How about you? Are you satisfied with the way your stories turned out?
Or are you like me and think, "Damn, I wish I had done that differently."?

I used to be quite satified with my stories, but not so much any more. Almost five years ago, I wrote a novella of about 24,000 words in six parts. I felt very good about it, and considered it to be possibly the best one I have done. However, I am now in the process of selling it to an online publisher, and am editing it. I am appalled at all the typos and the frequent bad choice of words. The editing is quite extensive, but it should be much improved by the time I am finished.

There is no reason to believe the other stories that I did a few years ago are not equally flawed. I'm considering doing a mass edit of them all.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Since I'm using Literotica to learn to write, I see my stories getting better over time. Since that was the original idea in the first place, yes I'm satisfied.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

I'm never satisfied with how my stories turn out. There's always something that could have been done better.

I prefer to leave them as is though and apply what I've learned to the next story. Otherwise I think I'd be continually editing the same story for eternity

 

[sr71plt]

There are only a few of mine posted here that I'm not satisfied with--and they are ones that have gotten a really good reception from a line of readers--which only makes me more dissatisfied with them, I think. There are some that I've held off posting for a year or more because I thought the Lit. readers were too sophisticated for them--and then when I post them, they get high ratings and votes.

But there are some stories of mine that give me chills of pleasure each time I look at them again.

I know that's not the humble answer--and I don't claim that what satisfies me is, or should be, satisfying to others--but you asked. There are some I've tried my damndest to turn into a nonerotic version because I like them so much I'd like to peddle them to the mainstream. Unfortunately, most of those are ones to which the eroticism is integral.

 

[hmmnmm]

mostly not at all

 

[Darkniciad]

I'm always editing, but it rarely has anything to do with the storyline. Grammar, stylistic issues, imagery, those are all fair game, but I'm almost always happy with the storyline and the characters.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I think I am happiest with my ghost story. But I still wish it could be better.

 

[Carnevil9]

Since I'm using Literotica to learn to write, I see my stories getting better over time. Since that was the original idea in the first place, yes I'm satisfied.

This is exactly how I feel. I'm getting better, I think, but I'm happy with my progress at each point in time.....Carney

 

[imadragon6]

satisfaction...hmm...not sure yet!

Well, I figured that I have a small amount of satisfaction with my one and only story, so far, that I've submitted. But, concidering that I have tons and tons of unfinished stories on my computer as well as on paper, I'm not so sure what satisfaction means anymore. LOL. I'm satisfied with the writing and how the story itself came out, but I'm not satisfied that it's finished. I think there is way too much going on to just let it end. If anyone wants to check it out and let me know what they think, its called Hungry...in the new section...page 7...and the author name is imadragon6. (although I'm pretty sure you all know how to get there LOL)
Thanks!

 

[amicus]

This may not be understood or appreciated, but a work of fiction, a 'made up' story, seems to me, to reflect the writer's existence at the moment or instant of conception or writing.

I stop and think of the almost infinite directions a story can take at any given point and wonder, as I reread some old ones, why I crafted them as I did.

Most times I have a story 'theme' in mind, I want to say a certain thing with the story. Sometimes I have a beginning and an end to a story, I know where it starts and where it ends, but the journey from point a to b, is indeterminate and could and often does, go anywhere it chooses.

I sense that same inspiration with a group of musicians, who like characters in a novel, feed off each other and take different paths, I wonder with drawing and painting if the same applies?

Sometimes in the writing of a story, especially a novel length effort, the direction of the journey changes midstream or is diluted or redirected, almost at a whim of a character who does or says something one did not plan.

Writing can be an amazing experience...


Amicus...

 

[Weird Harold]

I know this thread has been done before, But being the lazy beast that I am I am just too slothful to look it up.

I'm only really satisfied with one of my stories. And that one I still take a lot of flack about the ending. That is Ishmael

Most of my other stories are either still in progress or I am seriously considering a thorough re-write or both.
How about you? Are you satisfied with the way your stories turned out?
Or are you like me and think, "Damn, I wish I had done that differently."?

Depends.

I have three stories and one how-to essay posted here and am fully satisfied with all three (one of them was selected for the first Literotica book, so I'm especially satisfied wtih that one. )

I have several unfinished and unposted stories that I am NOT satisfied with -- which is why they are unfinished and unposted. When I reach a point where I'm staisfied with the story, it will get submitted -- and then left alone except for extremely egregious typos or formattting errors.

Everytime I re-read one of the posted stories, I spot something I'd do differently or a small typo/spelling error. However, that doesn't detract from my satisfaction with the stories; if something did detract from my satisfaction I would pull the story and discard it because I've already told that story and people have had a chance to praise or abuse it and I'm more interested in finishing the new stories I haven't told yet than I am wasting time trying to perfect an old submission that nobody is going to reread because I changed "you" to "your" in a couple of places.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

None of them are ever as good as they could be. If you ever get to that point, it's time to give up writing.

 

[emap]

I'm never happy with any story, or clothes I design. I do that in Second Life. I just work on it until I can't stand to even think about it and then pass it off to my old fart editor, or get it in game and call it finished. Rarely do I wear my own clothes, or read my own stories, simply because I can't stand the dang things anymore.

 

[S-Des]

Yup. I spent an inordinate amount of time on each story I have written and don't submit it until I'm completely happy. With one exception (chapter 1 of a 4 part story), I can honestly say it's the best I could do with the material (and the skills I have to work with). There are times I wish I wasn't so obsessive about it, with my time constraints at work, I barely have time to write, so haven't finished anything in ages.

 

[kromen]

For the love of......

That slipped out of my mouth when i just reread my first posted story. Typos, plot loopholes, just plain shit in my eyes. But it was a contest sub and it got high ratings. I'll keep it here as a reminder to always do better. Sometimes you have to let your story go, all the editing in the world wont make it shine any better in your own eyes.

 

[millennium_bard]

My story "Ishmael" Started out as a reply to a challenge thread here in the AH.
As I recall it was a challenge to describe a character without using the usual physical characteristics.

The snippet I posted wasn't quite up to what was expected in the challenge thread but it was intriguing enough for me to finish the story.
For once I had the whole story in mind when I started out to expand it and it only took a couple of days for me to write and submit.

A year ago I managed to get a PG-13 version of the story published as part of an anthology.
The Lit version of the story is the one I am happiest with though, warts and all.

I have posted the story, and others, both mine and those of my two late relatives elsewhere and have received fairly good responses from them.

And now that I am back to where I can write again, I plan on revamping most of my stories that I have posted here, and finishing the incomplete ones.

 

[al_Ussa]

Yes... and no. But yes. Theres always going to be some part of me that wants to go back and edit, change, re-write things. Its part of the reason actually posting anything on here has taken me as long as it does. And part of the reason I take so long trying to get back in touch with... well anyone actually.

See, sometimes you want to change a story. Years later, you realize some detail, character or even the ending is just... too fake. Or overdone. You want to add some detail from a life experience, or there was something you forgot to take into account. Or one of your 'fans' pointed out something you liked.

And of course there are typos and other little details too.

First thing I ever had published, which was under a different name and totally un-erotic (it was part of an RPG supplement) took over a year to go from my original writing to the final print version, and the minute I got my print copy in hand I noticed a couple little things I COULD have and SHOULD have changed (as well as a couple minor typos).

But c'est la vive.

 

[Guest]

I'm pleased with my non fiction work (one here, the rest on other sites and in some journals). That's more like writing articles from a research study, of course.

I'm never completely happy with a work of fiction but am usually relieved to finally send it on its way. Except for an initial read-through to make certain it posted accurately and completely, I'll probably never read it again.

I think I'm doing the How-to contest this time out (again, non-fiction) but I don't submit things to Lit for free anymore. It's fun to get paid for writing.

 

[Katyusha]

Most times I have a story 'theme' in mind, I want to say a certain thing with the story. Sometimes I have a beginning and an end to a story, I know where it starts and where it ends, but the journey from point a to b, is indeterminate and could and often does, go anywhere it chooses.

Sometimes in the writing of a story, especially a novel length effort, the direction of the journey changes midstream or is diluted or redirected, almost at a whim of a character who does or says something one did not plan.

Amicus...

This is what happens to me...I don't even do an outline (I know there are a lot of authors that do). I generally know how the story begins and often how it ends (less often than knowing how it starts though), but it goes where the characters want it to go.

That's how I ended up with novel instead of the short story I was intending to write awhile back.

 

[Belegon]

My stories are never finished. I just allow them to escape in a moment when I am distracted, internally or externally (for purposes of this discussion, a deadline is an external distraction.)

The only thing that keeps me from seeking to recapture my escapees is the prisoners still within my skull that are demanding attention.

 

[gauchecritic]

Well fuck me...

What MiAmico said.

I've just given someone on another board an explanation of why they should throw a story away that they've been working for 4 and a half years. It was MiAmico's reasoning. You're just not the same person as when the story started.

Which is why I don't edit anything I've posted. If I start editing I may as well just re-write the whole thing.

 

[sr71plt]

I only tinker with an already-published story if I think of a new story that can evolve from that to fit a new need/opportunity for a story.

In nonfiction, I'm rewriting and recasting mercilessly essentially the same material for new publishing opportunties/demands.