To remove a story or not?

[JGittes]

I spent two years sporatically plowing 60k+ words up a box canyon of a story and didn't have the skill to climb out and get through the 40k more words needed to finish. (I'm long winded, I know.)

Completely separate, I did write something for this year's Nude Day Contest. After I published that, I had an idea to take the stalled 60k piece to the scrapyard for parts and make a stab at the sort of shorter story many authors here suggest is the best way to go. I excised a couple of scenes and drastically edited it into something of a coherent, and much shorter, stand alone story. Both of the ND stories were well enough received.

Two things then happened; I realized I don't like writing shorter stories, it will be longform fiction or nothing, and; I took a couple of day long, Zoom writing workshops and figured out what to do with the original 60k story. I drastically edited it down to 52k (see above, I'm long winded, I know) and am plowing ahead again. It's back over 60k and progressing at a very pleasing pace.

The problem is it still contains the two scenes I excised for the shorter, nude day story. I went so far as to make three additional versions; one with only scene A, one with only scene B, and one without either scene. The story works okay with scene A, not too well with scene B, and is completely flat and jarring without either. The best is with both.

The already published story was highly edited into the stand alone version, and the very long story has also been highly edited from the published story. But, if you've already read the published story and then read the long story, the duplicate scenes are obvious.

My thought is to remove the already published story. It won't receive new readers who may have it more freshly in their memory when I publish the very long story, and it won't be there to be referenced and picked apart for comments by those who have already read it and vaguely remember something if they later read the very long story.

On the other hand, what's done is done. Let it stand and suffer the consequences.

 

[AlinaX]

Maybe add a brief paragraph noting that a couple of scenes from the new story were extracted and published previously.

 

[yukonnights]

I wouldn't worry too much about repeat readers. Even if they recognize parts of the story, that doesn't seem a huge issue to me. And like Alina suggested, a brief note to the readers explaining the situation should be enough IMO.

I've just recently gone back to the very first two stories I wrote for Literotica. The stories were okay, and did okay — but the category I chose for one of them was just beginner ignorance. The second one sort of just ended with things unresolved. The worst part is the two stories had completely different titles in different categories — thereby separating them.

I've removed the first one and reused most of it to craft a more cohesive new story, then lightly edited the second one and changed the category, and wrote a new story (still in pending) to wrap the trilogy up. Now all three will be in the same category with similar titles.

Is all of this going to change my life in a big way? Probably not, but the mess I had has been nagging at me for about 14 years and I can finally see the day approaching when the trilogy will be nested together as they should have been in the first place.

So, basically this was a self serving bit of effort to; 1. Provide a better story for those who read it going forward — and 2. Finally get a monkey off my back. Both of these make me happy.

So; It such things can be done. Some may say it's a waste of time, but I disagree

 

[JGittes]

Thank you both for excellent answers.

I too, learn by rewriting. I've rewritten all of mine, but only for my own edification. I don't replace them here. The one's on Lit are the originals, problems and all.

I'm to damned old to improve my craft by increasing the amount of new writing. I want to know I've said what I wanted to say in the clearest and most entertaining way possible. For myself.

Maybe add a brief paragraph noting that a couple of scenes from the new story were extracted and published previously.

I wouldn't worry too much about repeat readers. Even if they recognize parts of the story, that doesn't seem a huge issue to me. And like Alina suggested, a brief note to the readers explaining the situation should be enough IMO.

I've just recently gone back to the very first two stories I wrote for Literotica. The stories were okay, and did okay — but the category I chose for one of them was just beginner ignorance. The second one sort of just ended with things unresolved. The worst part is the two stories had completely different titles in different categories — thereby separating them.

I've removed the first one and reused most of it to craft a more cohesive new story, then lightly edited the second one and changed the category, and wrote a new story (still in pending) to wrap the trilogy up. Now all three will be in the same category with similar titles.

Is all of this going to change my life in a big way? Probably not, but the mess I had has been nagging at me for about 14 years and I can finally see the day approaching when the trilogy will be nested together as they should have been in the first place.

So, basically this was a self serving bit of effort to; 1. Provide a better story for those who read it going forward — and 2. Finally get a monkey off my back. Both of these make me happy.

So; It such things can be done. Some may say it's a waste of time, but I disagree

 

[SimonDoom]

Most of the time I think it's probably better for the author to be done with the old story and move on to the new. In this case, though, for your own artistic satisfaction it seems you might prefer to rework the old story. I see nothing wrong with that, although I don't know if any of us can tell you one way or another which will give you the most satisfaction. Only you know that. In this case, I wouldn't worry too much about readers. Do what will give you, on balance, the most satisfaction.

 

[yukonnights]

UP-Date on my previous post. For what it's worth, the work I've done to bring my first stories onto a more cohesive trilogy presentation has resulted in a swarm of new followers and rewarding ratings / comments. I feel both relieved and justified that I made the right decision to cleanup what had been a confused mess for so long. The only negative is that the third part is pending for posting tomorrow and some readers couldn't understand where it was — I had a note in each part that pointed to the next story, etc.

So, it can pay off to reshape/clean-up what's been done in the past

 

[CurvySassyAJ]

That is great to know! Glad it worked out for you.

 

[ElectricBlue]

UP-Date on my previous post. For what it's worth, the work I've done to bring my first stories onto a more cohesive trilogy presentation has resulted in a swarm of new followers and rewarding ratings / comments. I feel both relieved and justified that I made the right decision to cleanup what had been a confused mess for so long. The only negative is that the third part is pending for posting tomorrow and some readers couldn't understand where it was — I had a note in each part that pointed to the next story, etc.

So, it can pay off to reshape/clean-up what's been done in the past

After fourteen years of a nagging moose, I amazed you didn't do this earlier. Congratulations are in order!

 

[yukonnights]

After fourteen years of a nagging moose, I amazed you didn't do this earlier. Congratulations are in order!

That damn moosey muse finally hooked me in the arse and that kept me off my bum — wrote me erotic words standing on me feet. The Moose was right, I have to admit