Sometimes I look back...

[BiscuitHammer]

And I'm stunned by how different my stories have become from what I originally intended. I don't do many one-shot stories, I'm a series writer, clearly. Good lord, how things have changed since I published a first chapter in 2015.

I thought it'd be five, maybe six chapters. It ended up being seventeen. Then there's continuations and spinoffs. And while I hadn't expected it, I am enjoying it.

But I look back on early chapters and I'm astonished by the evolution and change. My characters are still my characters, but they've often been modified, slightly physically, and often in terms of personality.

It strikes home how much things have changed when I get comments still on those older chapters and the person is talking about a trait in a character that no longer exists in my current canon. I need to remind myself that the character was indeed like that way back then and I, as God, changed them to suit me.

And boy, oh boy, are there changes. If I sat down and wrote then all out, it'd be an extensive list. Extensive enough that I'm planning on just rebooting the first story to bring it in to line with where things are now. Because the more I look back, the more it drives me crazy. I like things the way they are now.

I should throw a tantrum at the author. Maybe he'll do something about it.

Wait...

Guys, do you ever look back at your oldest stuff and almost groan? I'm not talking editing or technical writing skills here, but the almost involuntary evolution and changes that have happened since. I'm talking to the multi-chapter authors, obviously. How often have things been left behind in your drive forward and now your universe is riddled with canon inconsistency tumors?

I've got a lot of retcon work to do...

 

[SimonDoom]

And I'm stunned by how different my stories have become from what I originally intended. I don't do many one-shot stories, I'm a series writer, clearly. Good lord, how things have changed since I published a first chapter in 2015.

I thought it'd be five, maybe six chapters. It ended up being seventeen. Then there's continuations and spinoffs. And while I hadn't expected it, I am enjoying it.

But I look back on early chapters and I'm astonished by the evolution and change. My characters are still my characters, but they've often been modified, slightly physically, and often in terms of personality.

It strikes home how much things have changed when I get comments still on those older chapters and the person is talking about a trait in a character that no longer exists in my current canon. I need to remind myself that the character was indeed like that way back then and I, as God, changed them to suit me.

And boy, oh boy, are there changes. If I sat down and wrote then all out, it'd be an extensive list. Extensive enough that I'm planning on just rebooting the first story to bring it in to line with where things are now. Because the more I look back, the more it drives me crazy. I like things the way they are now.

I should throw a tantrum at the author. Maybe he'll do something about it.

Wait...

Guys, do you ever look back at your oldest stuff and almost groan? I'm not talking editing or technical writing skills here, but the almost involuntary evolution and changes that have happened since. I'm talking to the multi-chapter authors, obviously. How often have things been left behind in your drive forward and now your universe is riddled with canon inconsistency tumors?

I've got a lot of retcon work to do...

This issue is very much up in the air for me, because I'm mostly a standalone story author, unlike you, but I'm working right now on a sequel to a story that's over 4 years old, and I plan to finish two other older series, and I'm curious whether I take a different approach or write the main characters differently. I don't know yet. I'm more interested in delving into the characters' motivations than I used to be. It remains to be seen what comes of that.

 

[KeithD]

I've just noticed that mine have become edgier and kinkier.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I find myself stunned at the sort of descriptions I thought would get people off.

Those stories have been taken down. I just couldn't handle seeing them in my works list.

 

[rescatooor]

I can't really look at most of them. Sometimes when I somehow do, I am pleasantly surprised at some expressions I have used although I do think story-telling itself has gotten a bit better.

It's also a question of the type of product it was to begin with. Was I proud of it? Did I try something new? Did it pay-off somehow?

Then again I haven't been writing all that long. Just 3-4 years here?

 

[oggbashan]

I started with a set of stories about the same characters. I could have written more, but when I go back to them, I'm not the person I was when I began writing them 20 years ago.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Guys, do you ever look back at your oldest stuff and almost groan? I'm not talking editing or technical writing skills here, but the almost involuntary evolution and changes that have happened since. I'm talking to the multi-chapter authors, obviously. How often have things been left behind in your drive forward and now your universe is riddled with canon inconsistency tumors?

I've got a lot of retcon work to do...

Why retcon it? Your interconnected world is what it is, with disruptions in the timelines, faults in the bridges between the inter-temporal places, corruptions in the data links. Who cares? Only you do, but to write a perfectly interconnected world is to write yourself inside an egg, and what's the point in that?

You're futzing with the last story, Hammer. Worrying about the next one, surely, is more important?

 

[yukonnights]

My stories are pretty much all separate stories, including the multi part ones, and have unique characters — except for the first two I wrote which still nag at me to do something to fix 'em.

As for writing about the same characters / same "universe" in every story; that sounds really boring — but that's just IMO.

But for those first two stories; The biggest problem was posting the first story, which includes a bisexual scene, in Loving Wives … ouch! The second problem is that I wrote a follow-up but stupidly gave it a different title and posted it in Gay … so, very few readers ever knew that the best part even existed. Mind you, this was in 2007 and I don't recall multi-part stories being much of a thing — or I was just unaware of them back then.

I've toyed with editing 'story one' to at least put it in the Gay category with a short intro note to point readers to the conclusion … but then my buddy Kieth's oft given advice to move on to the next story gives me pause — or maybe it's just my laziness Or, maybe I have COVID

In hindsight, today I would just combine the two in one longer story.

One of these days, one of these days I'm gonna fix it … I promise.

 

[KeithD]

Yes, I generally just move on to the next story. There are two phases to my writing the story before it gets post to Literotica. It usually goes into the marketplace, generally as part of an anthology, at first. And it's a year or more later before it comes up to be submitted to Literotica. I take a second cut at it then and it invariably gets added to and sometimes changed. Sometimes I don't recognize having written it to begin with.

 

[MillieDynamite]

On occasion I reread some early work of mine. I want to rewrite all my early stuff, but don't, you can't keep writing the same story over and over until you get right. I know writers who do and they never move on from one story, they just rework it endlessly. I won't be one of those writers.

With that said, I have rewritten a few of my early works. Happier with them now, but still, would rather leave the past in the past and move forward into the future. I am happy that I can see improvement in my writing. My goal is to be a better writer with each story I publish.

Not always the case, I'm sad to say.

 

[Comshaw]

And I'm stunned by how different my stories have become from what I originally intended. I don't do many one-shot stories, I'm a series writer, clearly. Good lord, how things have changed since I published a first chapter in 2015.

I thought it'd be five, maybe six chapters. It ended up being seventeen. Then there's continuations and spinoffs. And while I hadn't expected it, I am enjoying it.

But I look back on early chapters and I'm astonished by the evolution and change. My characters are still my characters, but they've often been modified, slightly physically, and often in terms of personality.

It strikes home how much things have changed when I get comments still on those older chapters and the person is talking about a trait in a character that no longer exists in my current canon. I need to remind myself that the character was indeed like that way back then and I, as God, changed them to suit me.

And boy, oh boy, are there changes. If I sat down and wrote then all out, it'd be an extensive list. Extensive enough that I'm planning on just rebooting the first story to bring it in to line with where things are now. Because the more I look back, the more it drives me crazy. I like things the way they are now.

I should throw a tantrum at the author. Maybe he'll do something about it.

Wait...

Guys, do you ever look back at your oldest stuff and almost groan? I'm not talking editing or technical writing skills here, but the almost involuntary evolution and changes that have happened since. I'm talking to the multi-chapter authors, obviously. How often have things been left behind in your drive forward and now your universe is riddled with canon inconsistency tumors?

I've got a lot of retcon work to do...

Slow down. Take a deep breath. It's growth. I'm not the same guy I was when I wrote my first story 20 odd years ago. The colors coming in lifes wndow are different; my outlook is different, so my stories are going to be different. It's a thing we all go through in everything we do: growth.

I look at some of my old stories and cringe and wonder 'how the hell did that come out of my head?"

Others I look at and smile. I have many I have started, left and gone back to years later to find I needed to get rid of them, or completely tear them apart and redo them, so I understand your frustration. But I'd look at it this way: how good will those stories be if I apply the skill I now have to that concept I started to use?

Being frustrated with trying to keep things consistent through a multipart story I also understand. That's why I try to stick with one-off stories. It doesn't make my head hurt as bad.

I started with a set of stories about the same characters. I could have written more, but when I go back to them, I'm not the person I was when I began writing them 20 years ago.

Absolutely Ogg. Growth...and I'm not referring to this big ol' belly I grew either! I could do without it, if I could just stay away from all those lovely meals.

Comshaw

 

[gunhilltrain]

Why retcon it? Your interconnected world is what it is, with disruptions in the timelines, faults in the bridges between the inter-temporal places, corruptions in the data links. Who cares? Only you do, but to write a perfectly interconnected world is to write yourself inside an egg, and what's the point in that?

You're futzing with the last story, Hammer. Worrying about the next one, surely, is more important?

Don't worry about having a perfectly set-up "universe." Without fully realizing it at first, I know I have stories that probably have the same or similar characters and settings, but they don't have neat timelines. If you want to look at it in terms of being perfect, it would be impossible to have all of those things happen because some of them are happening in the same time period and contradict each other.

There are indeed some timelines that can be followed, but unless I have a specific series written, many readers may or may not know these are related. Some of the stories may not even be on the same site. I wouldn't attempt one single, long-running series and expect it to cover all of that.

But that's what I've done and I'm content with it.

 

[Djmac1031]

And I'm stunned by how different my stories have become from what I originally intended. I don't do many one-shot stories, I'm a series writer, clearly. Good lord, how things have changed since I published a first chapter in 2015.

I thought it'd be five, maybe six chapters. It ended up being seventeen. Then there's continuations and spinoffs. And while I hadn't expected it, I am enjoying it.

But I look back on early chapters and I'm astonished by the evolution and change. My characters are still my characters, but they've often been modified, slightly physically, and often in terms of personality.

It strikes home how much things have changed when I get comments still on those older chapters and the person is talking about a trait in a character that no longer exists in my current canon. I need to remind myself that the character was indeed like that way back then and I, as God, changed them to suit me.

And boy, oh boy, are there changes. If I sat down and wrote then all out, it'd be an extensive list. Extensive enough that I'm planning on just rebooting the first story to bring it in to line with where things are now. Because the more I look back, the more it drives me crazy. I like things the way they are now.

I should throw a tantrum at the author. Maybe he'll do something about it.

Wait...

Guys, do you ever look back at your oldest stuff and almost groan? I'm not talking editing or technical writing skills here, but the almost involuntary evolution and changes that have happened since. I'm talking to the multi-chapter authors, obviously. How often have things been left behind in your drive forward and now your universe is riddled with canon inconsistency tumors?

I've got a lot of retcon work to do...

I'm still kinda new at this; out of my three "series" only one of them is truly progressing at 8 chapters now with 9 awaiting approval.

My other two series have stalled for the moment. One of them should have remained a single story but I got greedy and wrote a part 2, and now have no clue where to go.

But my Jenna series, the one that's working, I suppose I see some of that happening, but certainly not to that extent.

Mainly for me it is more about technical mistakes; poorly chosen or oft repeated words, etc.

I did start one chapter and had to scrap it halfway through because I realized what my female lead was doing was way out of character for what I'd established in earlier chapters, and had to do a total rewrite.

But I suppose with a series as long as yours, the characters just...evolve.

They kinda have to, to stay interesting, don't they?

 

[gunhilltrain]

BiscuitHammer: If I understand this correctly: the Alex and Alexa, Karen and Alexa, and Mike and Karen series are all connected in some way? If they are, then that is a hell of a lot of chapters over the course of six years. Unless you're John Updike (I don't know how he kept his Rabbit novels straight for over forty years), then probably you're going to notice some anomalies if you scrutinize them closely enough.

The readers seemed happy with almost all of it. So as people have been suggesting here, it's probably time to move on to the next thing.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

BiscuitHammer: If I understand this correctly: the Alex and Alexa, Karen and Alexa, and Mike and Karen series are all connected in some way? If they are, then that is a hell of a lot of chapters over the course of six years. Unless you're John Updike (I don't know how he kept his Rabbit novels straight for over forty years), then probably you're going to notice some anomalies if you scrutinize them closely enough.

The readers seemed happy with almost all of it. So as people have been suggesting here, it's probably time to move on to the next thing.

It's all one connected universe, yes. It started with Alex & Alexa, which was MEANT to be five or six chapters. But it proved surprisingly popular, and I kept going, tweaking and changing the characters as I grew to like them more, and for the themes in my head. And as a result, it got more popular still. It was succeeded by Mike & Karen, alongside Freja & Jeanie, and some other spinoffs.

Rebooting is a much for my sanity as anything, because I want to see my NEW interpretation and ideas for those older Alexaverse chapters brought to life. But I keep hammering away on new stuff, not just in the Alexaverse, but also my other stories.

And then there's real life interfering, holding up my progress. This would all be so much easier if I won a zillion dollars and could just write and drink absinthe all day.

But yes, GH, they're an entire universe, the Alexaverse, inside my larger Hammerverse (no ego issues here, no). To quote Karen "It's not the disasters that kill us, it's the messes. And I cannot abide by messes."

So while moving forward, I'm still looking backward and grimacing. Can't help it. I like my newer iterations of my characters better. The only benefit to the Alexaverse issue is that I've learned to never paint myself into a corner with my other, unrelated stories. And I'm VERY thorough about fleshing people out exactly how I want them.

I hear real writers go through this sort of torment too, so at least I have exalted company in my neuroses.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It's all one connected universe, yes. It started with Alex & Alexa, which was MEANT to be five or six chapters. But it proved surprisingly popular, and I kept going, tweaking and changing the characters as I grew to like them more, and for the themes in my head. And as a result, it got more popular still. It was succeeded by Mike & Karen, alongside Freja & Jeanie, and some other spinoffs.

Rebooting is a much for my sanity as anything, because I want to see my NEW interpretation and ideas for those older Alexaverse chapters brought to life. But I keep hammering away on new stuff, not just in the Alexaverse, but also my other stories.

And then there's real life interfering, holding up my progress. This would all be so much easier if I won a zillion dollars and could just write and drink absinthe all day.

But yes, GH, they're an entire universe, the Alexaverse, inside my larger Hammerverse (no ego issues here, no). To quote Karen "It's not the disasters that kill us, it's the messes. And I cannot abide by messes."

So while moving forward, I'm still looking backward and grimacing. Can't help it. I like my newer iterations of my characters better. The only benefit to the Alexaverse issue is that I've learned to never paint myself into a corner with my other, unrelated stories. And I'm VERY thorough about fleshing people out exactly how I want them.

I hear real writers go through this sort of torment too, so at least I have exalted company in my neuroses.

Probably you should hold off on the absinthe drinking until you are finished with the writing for the day. That's unless you want to experiment with the effects it would have on your style. I have no experience with the stuff.

Well, ultimately you have to make yourself happy. Maybe you could start from scratch rather than replacing chapters piecemeal? That's up to you.

In the print era, very few writers got a chance for a reboot. James Joyce had several editions of Ulysses published, a couple posthumously. Stephen King was so damn popular that he was able to publish a longer edition of at least one of his novels. I would think that original version of The Stand was more than adequate in terms of length.

 

[Agiel]

I wouldn’t say any of my stories have turned out differently than I intended but I do find it weird sometimes when I compare earlier stories with the ones I’m writing now. Sometimes I look back and think how much I’ve improved and sometimes reread part of a story from a long time ago and think that’s better than I’ve just written.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Let me add that Chester Himes had posthumous reboots of two of his novels. I don't know who decided to publish them or where they got the original texts from. That info is probably online somewhere if one is willing to do some research. It's still a rarity for most writers.

 

[Stillrandy]

I thought it'd be five, maybe six chapters. It ended up being seventeen. Then there's continuations and spinoffs. And while I hadn't expected it, I am enjoying it.
<snipped for brevity.
And boy, oh boy, are there changes. If I sat down and wrote then all out, it'd be an extensive list. Extensive enough that I'm planning on just rebooting the first story to bring it in to line with where things are now. Because the more I look back, the more it drives me crazy. I like things the way they are now.

Just want to say that I have enjoyed your stories, they are very engaging and worth re-reading from time to time. I think I spent a couple of weeks immersed in your "My Naughty Neighbor" series! I like your stories as they are, but will also look forward to seeing any new directions you conjure up.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Just want to say that I have enjoyed your stories, they are very engaging and worth re-reading from time to time. I think I spent a couple of weeks immersed in your "My Naughty Neighbor" series! I like your stories as they are, but will also look forward to seeing any new directions you conjure up.

I promise, I'm not messing with MNN, the only series that got away from me is Alex & Alexa. It's the one that needs overhauling. If you've read Mike & Karen, then you KNOW how out of date A&A is...

And thank you, by the way.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I promise, I'm not messing with MNN, the only series that got away from me is Alex & Alexa. It's the one that needs overhauling. If you've read Mike & Karen, then you KNOW how out of date A&A is...

And thank you, by the way.

If you don't mind, now I'm going to ask for your opinion on something. At any point when writing your various series, did you ever announce to your readers that you were presenting the last chapter? Presumably you must have come back and kept going on at least one of them.

The reason I'm asking is that I have a fairly short series (ten chapters I think) on another site and I don't have a clear ending or resolution for it. I announced that I was "pausing" it until I had some inspiration to continue. At least one reader was disappointed that I hadn't neatly tied it up.

By the way, I've read comments from other Liteotica authors who have said that the same thing happens even on stand-alone stories. Readers will comment, "So what happens next?" or "Please write more about this." That can be annoying because maybe the author doesn't have anything more to contribute at that moment.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

If you don't mind, now I'm going to ask for your opinion on something. At any point when writing your various series, did you ever announce to your readers that you were presenting the last chapter? Presumably you must have come back and kept going on at least one of them.

That's an easy AND absurd answer from me: I have no series stories that have ended yet. I've put several on hiatus, because I was so behind with my flagship series, the Alexaverse, but I did indeed announce that they would be on hiatus while I caught up with another one. I'm nearly caught up with where I want to be, so I'll be starting the others again before long.

I'm not much help about stopping a story and resuming it, since I don't seem to be able to stop a story with intent. People have asked me to pick up one-shots and do more about that, but I've no particular intention of that, admittedly.

I'm a series writer with too many ideas, and as a result, many get put on hiatus when they don't deserve it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

That's an easy AND absurd answer from me: I have no series stories that have ended yet. I've put several on hiatus, because I was so behind with my flagship series, the Alexaverse, but I did indeed announce that they would be on hiatus while I caught up with another one. I'm nearly caught up with where I want to be, so I'll be starting the others again before long.

I'm not much help about stopping a story and resuming it, since I don't seem to be able to stop a story with intent. People have asked me to pick up one-shots and do more about that, but I've no particular intention of that, admittedly.

I'm a series writer with too many ideas, and as a result, many get put on hiatus when they don't deserve it.

SPOILER ALERT - the endings of some novels and TV shows are discussed here.

I can see that the endings of works are tricky, because how do you define The End? Presumably future events are going to happen anyway, but those are not part of the main story line and are not worth describing. It's up to the author or creator to decide.

Updike ended thirty years of his Rabbit novels by killing off his main character. He still couldn't stop himself from adding a coda, a novella, ten years further on. The Breaking Bad TV show also ended neatly with Walter's death. The Sopranos didn't really have an ending, just the screen going black. I thought that there would likely be a sequel, but Gandolfini's death precluded that.

"Enough! Or too much," as William Blake once wrote.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

SPOILER ALERT
I can see that the endings of works are tricky, because how do you define The End? Presumably future events are going to happen anyway, but those are not part of the main story line and are not worth describing. It's up to the author or creator to decide. .

Some of my series have a decided, finite ending, like The Great Khan or My Naughty Neighbour. I have interesting ideas for the Alexaverse that bring about a conclusion to the huge saga without being an 'ending'.

I've discovered that I need to have a thought-out, decided end in mind, or I'll just keep finding ways to keep going, because I enjoy it. To borrow from Zeppelin, I'll ramble on...

 

[gunhilltrain]

Some of my series have a decided, finite ending, like The Great Khan or My Naughty Neighbour. I have interesting ideas for the Alexaverse that bring about a conclusion to the huge saga without being an 'ending'.

I've discovered that I need to have a thought-out, decided end in mind, or I'll just keep finding ways to keep going, because I enjoy it. To borrow from Zeppelin, I'll ramble on...

Some people on this board have recommended not starting a series until it has been planned out. I often don't have the discipline for that. If it doesn't go well, I don't ramble on; I run out of momentum and it just stops at some seemingly random point.