Rewriting older works

[Rob_Royale]

So with a little time to kill tonight I clicked on the first story I published here. Mama's Beach House. It's always been a favorite of mine, but rereading it after two years of practice, has shown how much I've improved. I didn't have Grammarly when I first wrote it and I think if I opened the original document up now, it would light up like a Christmas tree.

In the past, when I was building models in an online community like this one, I was always an advocate for not rebuilding your early models, because it shows you how much you've improved. But with writing I'm not thinking that way anymore. Every instinct tells me to "fix it." To have my best work out there for the readers.

Thoughts?

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm of the "keep moving forward" school. There are some things I might change in a few of my older stories, but I prefer to let them be, and to incorporate whatever I've learned since in my newer stories.

 

[alohadave]

But with writing I'm not thinking that way anymore. Every instinct tells me to "fix it." To have my best work out there for the readers.

If you are 'fixing' your old works, you aren't applying your improved skills to new works.

It's a rabbit hole that you can fall into where you only ever keep refining what you've already written. At some point, it has to live in the world, warts and all, and you have to move on.

See also: all the revisions that George Lucas made to the Star Wars movies. There are like 7-8 versions of some of them.

 

[XerXesXu]

I wrote my first two 'novels' because there was something I'd learned, cared about, and wanted to share. Subsequently, I've written nothing as personally meaningful. I may go back and 'perfect' those first two using my improved technique - it's only a question of time.

 

[TheRedChamber]

The keep moving forward mantra has its place. When I started writing I decided that I would wait until I'd written ten stories and then allow myself to rewrite two of them if I still wanted to. As it was, I did substantially rewrite one story - by the time I'd written forty. It 'worked' in the sense that it took a story that was in the low 4s and got it a H rating - more importantly though I sorted out some careless consent issues which had been bothering me ever since the comments pointed them out (It was my first ever story and written and posted in haste to persuade myself that I could do it.)

I don't think you need to be that precious about rewriting stuff. George Lucas is a special case because he's taking films which are already amongst the most beloved ever made and making them worse. Our tawdry scribblings are far more mallable and less in the public's conciousness.

 

[JGittes]

Contrary to popular consensus, authors revisited their work even in the ink and paper publishing world. It didn't happen often, but purely because of money. If you rely on writing for your livelihood, plowing ahead with new, paying work is the way to go. But H. G. Wells, for example, rewrote The Time Machine for a 20th-anniversary (or some such thing) re-release. He justified it by extending the copyright. Lots of popular authors have done that.

The mantra to move ahead comes from traditional print publishing and is a financial issue only. If it were as easy to rewrite and publish as now, we'd have a different mantra.

Aside from that, I rewrite my work as an educational exercise. A few authors here write stream of consciousness and edit sparingly. They claim they lose freshness or spontaneity with edits—more power to them. I find my story in the editing process. Those of us who do edit always recommend letting the story sit for a few days. I find a couple of years is even better.

 

[gundyash99]

I think it's perfectly fine to go back and rewrite older works. Sometimes you see things with fresh eyes and can improve on your original ideas. However, I also believe that constantly revisiting the past can prevent you from moving forward with new projects. Maybe it's best to update a few key pieces but keep focusing on your new work. Balance is key.

 

[Rustyoznail]

While I agree with your sentiment, who's going to know you've updated your story?

The only story I've changed was a recent one where I missed a key plot point and it bugged me enough to fix it.

 

[StillStunned]

I think it might be an interesting to take one story and rewrite it once every few years, to see how my writing has changed. That said, I doubt I'd ever do it in practice. Too much like hard work.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm with Simon on the always forward school.

But a couple years ago I was invited to be part of a Halloween anthology and the story they wanted was written back around 2013 and when I opened it up....ugh. I went through and not only improved the grammar, but ended up rewriting some paragraphs, dropping a bit that didn't need to be there, and in the end losing 1100 words, and making it a much better story.

It was an interesting exercise and worth it to show where I've improved and because going into an anthology can get you new readers, so you want to look good. But it was tedious and not something I would go back and do because I have time.

I did a thread about it, but no interest in looking it up, it was a while ago and I don't even know what I called it.

 

[other2other1]

I am perhaps a little from both schools, but for the most part, I agree: keep moving forward. But something about earlier works and fixing those points just irks me now, which I want to do. For example, while I love Forced Perspective, my very first story, there is so much I want to fix that I am about a third of the way through a rewrite. It will be mid to late 2025 by the time it sees the light of day, as there are other stories I want to tell. But sometimes, a rewrite (mainly when you don't make money for writing) can be as rewarding as something new.