Should I fix my older stories?

[Ray Dario]

I have 25 stories posted here at Lit, soon to be 26. However whenever someone reads my older stories, I feel like they may be getting a distorted view of my writing ability today.

My older stories had many mechanical and construction problems. Many of them also had significant plot and character development problems. It would be a huge effort to try to go back and fix them.

Is it worth the effort? Is it something I *should* do? Do I owe it to my readers to go to the effort of making all my stories the best they could be?

Or am I just coming up with a new creative way to avoid starting another story?

Ray

 

[KillerMuffin]

I cringe whenever I get the odd email about Alexandra's Odyssey. I'm thinking of just removing those altogether.

Personally, I'm not terribly interested in fixing the older stuff because there's more wrong with it than bad grammar and punctuation. The most I'd do is correct mechanical errors. Fixing the stories themselves, though, I'd just write a new one and eventually have Laurel overhaul my account.

There are those who quietly begin a new author name and go about submitting with improved writing. That way they don't have to fess up to the older "crap."

I think it's kind of interesting to read an author's works chronologically--go to Story Search and type in the author's name--to see how s/he's changed over time.

 

[Weird Harold]

Is it worth the effort? Is it something I *should* do? Do I owe it to my readers to go to the effort of making all my stories the best they could be?

Let sleepings dogs lie. You should only revise a published story if you're going to re-publish it on a different venue. An exception would be if you're writing a sequel and the original is horribly bad, either grammatically or esthetically.

 

[Guest]

thank you ray for an interesting question
i have been wondering over the same thang.

originally posted by killermuffin
I think it's kind of interesting to read an author's works chronologically--go to Story Search and type in the author's name--to see how s/he's changed over time.

excellent idea. i alway wanted to do that...but didn't know how. i'll defenitly try it.

as for the old stories, I prolly wouldn't do anything about it. i don't want to diss Laurel, either.

things are getting clearer and clearer. i'm figuring them out as i go.

 

[Ray Dario]

I think it's kind of interesting to read an author's works chronologically--go to Story Search and type in the author's name--to see how s/he's changed over time.

I did this for myself. They are listed by the submission date. Unfortunately many of the stories I have submitted here I wrote before I knew about Lit and I didn't submit them in the order I wrote them. So you wouldn't really be getting a chronological list of my stories. Still it's pretty neat to see them that way.

Maybe I'll do the "sneaking" off thing. I've thought of that some times. It would solve the problem of all the people I have pissed off on the boards too. I could keep my Ray Dario person around to play on the boards and build a new person to submit my stories under.

Damn, that sounds like a lot of work though, and then I'd probably screw up and post on the board while logged in as my secret identity. Jeeze did Clark Kent have these kinds of problems?

Ray

 

[Guest]

Re:Ray

stay as you are ray. u r beautiful.
you redneck-texan, you.

 

[abashed-dreamer]

Hi Ray,

I've made mild 'fixes', just out of pride. I recently made a big revision and posted it, and the problem is that, once two weeks pass, if a story is not near the top (which it might not be, if defective), it gets few hits. I've found hardly anyone notices; I'm down to a couple dozen reads per day. Frustrating, esp. if you think things are greatly improved.

As you know there is a core problem at literotica, and I've not heard any good answer. Except for a few dozen 'top' stories in 'reads' or ratings, most are buried under the avalanche of
submissions. After that, in six months, one is lucky if one soul stumbles across an old story. (And this seems to occur even if one continues to submit; I've averaged one per month, I believe.) Now of course, most deserve that burial, but I also know there are a few hundred good ones that will hardly ever be found, unless by accident.

Sometime I'd like to see a poll of authors of more than, say, ten stories, to name (outside themselves and pals) their 'top' five of all stories at literotica.


Jack.

 

[Axeltheswede]

old stories

You might want to consider another approach. You can list your story titles and offer some additional explanations in the text part of your profile page. Let your readers know which stories are old, middle aged, or new.

I think there is a lot of flexibility there. Other people have written long, involved essays on their profile page. Offering some comments about how you have improved wouldn't be out of order.

Something to consider, anyway.

 

[wildsweetone]

NO NO NO NO I FORBID YOU!

DO NOT GO BACK AND FIX ALL THE PROBLEMS AS YOU'VE SUGGESTED!

how else can one measure one's improvement without having original work to stand against?

keep it as it is. ask laurel to take them off lit.com for you if you're concerned the work will be distorted

make sure you keep those stories on file somewhere for your own personal record. in ten years time, you'll smile to yourself when you realise just how far you will have improved.

maybe choose one that you'd like to update with the new skills you've learnt.

*hugs*

 

[Wm_Sexspear]

Ray,

I've seen a number of "what should I do" questions in the Author's hangout. To that specific question, anywhere I've seen it, I think there is only one correct answer. What do you want to do? What does your heart tell you.

Any decent debater could make a case for either side of a question.

Example:

YES: Readers are going to read stories you've trailed behind you. Don't they deserve to come to this site and find quality stories?

No: Where are the quality new stories that you're capable of creating going to come from if you spend all your time trying to make yesterday's mistakes look less glaring.

My first story was posted last month. I made some efforts to submit a quality piece. For several reasons, I did have many typos in it. Once I realized many people liked it and continue to read it, I spent the time to go fix the outright errors. I even changed a few words to improve a sentence here and there. Doing that is what I felt was right, but I mostly did it because it made me feel better.

If I'm being paid, then what is right for my employer is a factor. In the world of freely given work, I feel the only thing right is what you decide right to be. Larry

 

[Star of Penumbra]

There are a number of things to be said about both chaning your older stories and leaving them as they are.

If you go back and change them, you are giving people who are unfamiliar with your work a look at what your writing skill is as of now (presumably, redoing your stories could become a regular thing, which can be bad as it will take up a lot of time).

On the other hand, you are denying them (and yourself) a chance to see how you've progressed from your earlier days. However, the mistakes and poorer quality of writing in the earlier works can be embarrassing.

So basically, you have to decide if it's more important to avoid embarrassment or to preserve your writing history (of course, you could always keep a backup copy of each version).

Ugh. Sometimes I hate being able to see both sides of an arguement.

 

[secretdesire]

I recently submitted my first story and I'm actually already in the process of re-editing it. I had edited before submitting, of course, but after viewing it on-line, I found a few mistakes I had missed. I can't stand that, so I decied to fix them. In the process of giving the whole thing a read through, though, I've also decided to rework a few paragraphs that were a little awkward. Some of it's also based on reader suggestions.

My story already seems to be doing well, so I don't want to overdo my tinkering. But if I can make a few minor changes that will improve it, I think it's a good idea.