Making big edits to earlier chapters

[LaRascasse]

So here's the thing...

I have a long-running series of stand-alone stories about a central main character. It gets a good score whenever I put out a new installment.

There is a direction I want to take, but for it I need a certain backstory for my character. The problem is I have already explained her backstory back in the first story several years ago.

Now given that none of this is actually published on paper, I can technically just go back and remove the half-page or so of backstory in that first story and then sprinkle it in bits and pieces later on and have it tie into my new chapter. It's not an actual set of books I have to recall and rewrite.

I wonder though... what is the correct etiquette in this case? Is what I described considered good form? After all, I'm not just removing typos and correcting tense, it is a lot of major story which I am chopping and changing.

Should I at least put a note in my bio and subsequent parts to read the story from the start and not just the most recent story? Will that rub some readers the wrong way?

I wrote that first part over 8 years ago. It would be a shame if I had to be constrained by all the bad writing choices I have made in that time.

I could write a new story with a new character with this backstory, but she would have far too much overlap with this already established character of mine to be worth it.

What is your take?

 

[MelissaBaby]

So here's the thing...

I have a long-running series of stand-alone stories about a central main character. It gets a good score whenever I put out a new installment.

There is a direction I want to take, but for it I need a certain backstory for my character. The problem is I have already explained her backstory back in the first story several years ago.

Now given that none of this is actually published on paper, I can technically just go back and remove the half-page or so of backstory in that first story and then sprinkle it in bits and pieces later on and have it tie into my new chapter. It's not an actual set of books I have to recall and rewrite.

I wonder though... what is the correct etiquette in this case? Is what I described considered good form? After all, I'm not just removing typos and correcting tense, it is a lot of major story which I am chopping and changing.

Should I at least put a note in my bio and subsequent parts to read the story from the start and not just the most recent story? Will that rub some readers the wrong way?

I wrote that first part over 8 years ago. It would be a shame if I had to be constrained by all the bad writing choices I have made in that time.

I could write a new story with a new character with this backstory, but she would have far too much overlap with this already established character of mine to be worth it.

What is your take?

My first thought is that I would make the changes, and add an opening note that it had been revised. You might even check with Laurel about adding (Revised) to the title.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Very, VERY guilty offender here.

My very first story that I published here was meant to be five, maybe six chapters in the I/T section. Short, sweet, not terribly deep.

Well, it's now gigantic, not short, and often very deep. Things have evolved so much that my earliest chapters are now horribly out of date and can no longer be considered canon.

To that end, I'm just rebooting the entire first arc, to bring it up to speed. I'm keeping the story but tweaking the characters and time frame to bring them into line with who they are when I write them now.

I've also learned to NEVER paint myself into a corner.

I'm gonna to be rebooting seventeen freaking chapters. I need to to, because I can't stand the inconsistency.

If you need to, do it. If it'll improve things for you, what else really matters?

 

[lovecraft68]

Like anything else you'll get some mixed reactions. Most won't mind-or maybe even notice-the purists will be "But wait, didn't..." and some will really lay in by showing you everything you changed and ask WTF?

I swear there are people who know what I wrote in my SWB series better than I do. They take canon to heart.

Timely thread though as I've been thinking part of my big block with writing book five of my horror series is a couple of things I mentioned in book three that created issues for the ongoing story and seeing I keep stalling on revisiting them I wonder if I could just go back and remove the seeds of those storylines and move on.

 

[Bramblethorn]

So here's the thing...

I have a long-running series of stand-alone stories about a central main character. It gets a good score whenever I put out a new installment.

There is a direction I want to take, but for it I need a certain backstory for my character. The problem is I have already explained her backstory back in the first story several years ago.

Now given that none of this is actually published on paper, I can technically just go back and remove the half-page or so of backstory in that first story and then sprinkle it in bits and pieces later on and have it tie into my new chapter. It's not an actual set of books I have to recall and rewrite.

I wonder though... what is the correct etiquette in this case? Is what I described considered good form? After all, I'm not just removing typos and correcting tense, it is a lot of major story which I am chopping and changing.

Should I at least put a note in my bio and subsequent parts to read the story from the start and not just the most recent story? Will that rub some readers the wrong way?

I wrote that first part over 8 years ago. It would be a shame if I had to be constrained by all the bad writing choices I have made in that time.

I could write a new story with a new character with this backstory, but she would have far too much overlap with this already established character of mine to be worth it.

What is your take?

Retconning is a valid option, one that has been exercised by many professional authors. For instance:

"In the original 1937 edition of "The Hobbit" Gollum was genuinely willing to bet his ring on the riddle game, the deal being that Bilbo would receive a "present" if he won. Gollum in fact was dismayed when he couldn't keep his promise because the ring was missing. He showed Bilbo the way out as an alternative, and they parted courteously." But as Lord of the Rings took shape, this was no longer consistent with Tolkien's concept of Gollum and the Ring, so it needed to change. (https://tolkien.cro.net/tolkien/changes.html)

Other authors who've made significant changes to already-published works include Diane Duane and Chuck Tingle. Duane in particular made major rewrites to her novel "A Wizard Alone" because she wasn't happy with how she'd handled an autistic character and wanted to fix that.

Another option is to fork the character: "Dear readers, the Heather in this story is a slightly different version to the one presented in [previous story] because I wanted to explore some new possibilities." If you're feeling industrious, you could publish an alt-version of [previous story] to go with that, or just handle the new content within the new story.

Comics do this quite often, and I know one novelist who has three different versions of his favourite heroine for three different worlds. One option for signalling this kind of thing is to make a change to the name while keeping it recognisable: "Jane A. Doe" vs. "Jane B. Doe", etc.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My take is that readers who have already read the story probably aren't going to read it again, so won't care. And readers who are finding the story for the first time won't know about the old version, so it won't matter.

Therefore, submit the edits without announcement, because you're dealing with don't know or don't care. It's not as if you're going around to their house with a bunch of replacement pages for a book they bought last week.

 

[gordo12]

Although you won't get a lot of people rereading the story and noticing the difference, it did happen to me a while back.

I reread one of my favs and was shocked to find the story changed quite a bit from the original. No warning...nothing.

I would have appreciated an author's note upfront explaining that changes were made. But like I said, damn few people will reread. So, the effort for nothing? I don't know.

 

[LaRascasse]

My take is that readers who have already read the story probably aren't going to read it again, so won't care. And readers who are finding the story for the first time won't know about the old version, so it won't matter.

Therefore, submit the edits without announcement, because you're dealing with don't know or don't care. It's not as if you're going around to their house with a bunch of replacement pages for a book they bought last week.

This is my current line of thinking. However, this backstory also ties into the new installments, so they would need to start from the beginning any way.

 

[gunhilltrain]

My take is that readers who have already read the story probably aren't going to read it again, so won't care. And readers who are finding the story for the first time won't know about the old version, so it won't matter.

Therefore, submit the edits without announcement, because you're dealing with don't know or don't care. It's not as if you're going around to their house with a bunch of replacement pages for a book they bought last week.

That reminds me of how legal books used to be in loose-leaf binders and only some of the pages would be replaced by the publisher every year. You can imagine the hassles of keeping track of of all that stuff. (I was a production editor at such a company.)

In your case, you are trying to get a balance between what you want to do and what you think the readers will expect. I would guess that since you added the final chapter - what, eight years ago? - it won't be necessary to announce the changes in every one of the revised chapters. (You are not changing all of them, correct?) So, as you suggested, you won't likely be getting the same people reading the whole thing again. Just change what you think is necessary and let it go at that.

[I admire your patience at attempting such a thing. I have never tried anything close to the scope of what you are going to do.]