Do you remember all your stories?

[lovecraft68]

This thread is probably aimed more at people who have large story filed here or elsewhere, but then again, maybe some here who haven't written as much could still apply. I've always looked at writing in the not so positive sense of they can't all be winners. That doesn't mean we don't make an effort with all of our work, but let's face it, some are better than others. I want to point out this has nothing to do with reception of the story here or elsewhere, I'm speaking of how we view the story.

This came to me last night when I randomly scrolled through my list of e-books-many of the early ones were here first-and as I drifted through I'd look at the cover and title and briefly dwell on it. I'd recall the character names, basic storyline at the least, sometimes a memorable scene or just the "Yeah, I hit that one" or even "Not the best" but I could remember it.

I realized there were several stories that as I kept staring at the title I couldn't tell you a damn thing about. Not the names, not the storyline, other than "Okay Mom's in the title so its obviously an M/S story" I was drawing a blank to the point I caved and clicked on it to read the blurb and was then like...yeah, I'm still not getting anything.

I did notice that it was all taboo stories that this happened with, and during a point in time I was good for 20+ stories/e-books a year so maybe I was just churning things out mechanically and not really into it. I equate it with how you can read through a novel or binge watch a show quickly, but not get all of it, but a reread or watch shows you "Oh, yeah I missed that."

FWIW I skimmed through two of these, which finally jarred the memory, but also left me with "There's nothing all that special here" which explains why I don't remember shit about it.

Is this just me?

 

[MrPixel]

Not a problem here, but I haven't crossed the 50 threshold yet (but will soon). Some are forgettable, though. Sorta like you said, can't hit a home run on every one.

 

[MelissaBaby]

No, lots of old people have these problems.

 

[StillStunned]

As long as my readers remember them!

 

[samhasstories]

My stories here, yeah - I don't have very many. My documents folder on my computer, absolutely not. Every now and then I scroll through, find something I scribbled down over a couple days, years ago, and have sort of a deja vu moment. It's kinda fun, but it's also a reminder of what a disorganized mess I am.

 

[lovecraft68]

No, lots of old people have these problems.

Oh yeah, well....wait, what was the question? Do I know you?
I'll get back to you.

 

[lovecraft68]

My stories here, yeah - I don't have very many. My documents folder on my computer, absolutely not. Every now and then I scroll through, find something I scribbled down over a couple days, years ago, and have sort of a deja vu moment. It's kinda fun, but it's also a reminder of what a disorganized mess I am.

I wasn't really thinking of that, but I have a folder called "remnants" that's just some weird scenes I wrote out of the blue or scenes that never made it into a story or my novels and once every so often I open it to see if there's anything I could use for a WIP and I'm always surprised by some of it. "Hey, I wrote that?"

 

[Devinter]

Whilst I certainly do not remember every single detail or character name, I don't think I could forget a story completely - especially if I was allowed to skim it. I still remember many stories I wrote when I was 8-9 years old. But that doesn't mean I have a perfect memory; far from it! In fact, I forgot my own birthday one year, and sometimes I have to count for a while in order to remember how old I am. I can be very scatter-brained with short-term memory. But if I wrote something creatively? Ruins my brain forever. Can get details mixed up between two or more stories though. Oops!

 

[AchtungNight]

Most of them. I’ve always had a good memory and deep commitment towards the things I imagine.

 

[Omenainen]

I have about 30 stories published, so less than some. I'm sure I couldn't list all of them from the top of my head, but I do remember all of them if I read the titles. Of some I tend to think "oh I published that one, huh" so maybe they're the more forgettable ones. I haven't been at this for very many years, I'm sure this will get worse.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've got 58 stories here. I can remember them pretty well, partly because they're quite varied in terms of category, plot, and characters. This probably reduces my following by quite a bit (visibly so, when I gained about 70 followers from an Incest story, then lost most of them when my next three stories were Fetish and heavy BDSM...)

I forget details, though. Sometimes I go back to stuff I wrote 10 years ago and realise I've plagiarised myself with reuse of clever phrasing. Though sometimes I do it on purpose - I have a story on another site with about 600 near-identical words, because characters were going to the same place for the first time.

 

[KeithD]

A good many of my stories surprise me when I look at them again. Some of them are seventeen years old and written one and a half thousand stories ago. This is particularly frustrating when a reader asks me to recommend a story in my file with a certain theme or character. I don't have all of these in one database. I don't keep them in my mind enough to do such locating.

 

[lovecraft68]

A good many of my stories surprise me when I look at them again. Some of them are seventeen years old and written one and a half thousand stories ago. This is particularly frustrating when a reader asks me to recommend a story in my file with a certain theme or character. I don't have all of these in one database. I don't keep them in my mind enough to do such locating.

I was thinking of people like you and Sam X and even Freddie who has written a couple of thousand stories under different names.

I think if you could remember them all there wouldn't be room up there for anything else.

 

[TxRad]

Yeah, memory lapse. I had a comment on a story this morning that I knew I wrote but the details weren't there. I read it and was surprised that I agreed with the commenter that it was an excellent story. To bad the score doesn't agree. Oh well, so goes life.

 

[Duleigh]

I have 1.3 million words published here in 65 stories and I did a count this morning, 42 of them are tied together, so I kind of remember... ish. I have a db of my stories and the .doc that I submitted each one in is stored where I can search their contests easily.

In the military I trained myself out of depending on my memory (good preparation for growing old) because do you want some guy hanging a dozen cruise missiles on a B-52 and doing it by memory? No. So I learned to use my reference technical data every time.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

The stories I've completed and published, sure. Only 57 on here but I can look at the list and smile at all of them.
The dozens I have in my Works in Progress folder, not so much. I find I have to go back and re-read them if I pick one back up, which I do frequently if I get blocked on the one I was working on. That's mostly because I will actively work on three for four stories at the same time as my muse moves through me and I get them confused. Something about publishing them set them in my memory, I guess.

I've only been doing this for about four years and at last count had well over a million words written. That's a huge number to me, maybe not so big to some others.

 

[StillStunned]

I'm like Shelby. The ones I've published, or at least written to my satisfaction, I remember. But I'll sometimes look at my folder of drafts and go, "Huh, I'd forgotten about that."

It can be quite a pleasant surprise. The other day I published "The Code" after I found 3k words already done. All it needed was the big sex scene and the ending.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

I'm over 60 stories in coming up for six years, many of them quite long. I reckon I could give a decent plot summary and main character list of the majority of them.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I've had too many concussions to just... remember stuff like that. Some stuff I don't remember until I remember that I do, stuff I forget that I remember, stuff I remember, that I wish I could forget, which are the worst things.