When you've written something that's crap ...

[NoJo]

For Lisa.
I love your nice big writing. Nice and easy to read:


See Spot Run.
Hump Leg, Spot.
G Spot, Spot.

 

[Guest]

For Lisa.
I love your nice big writing. Nice and easy to read:


See Spot Run.
Hump Leg, Spot.
G Spot, Spot.

i love to read the classics. thank you, joe.

 

[BlackShanglan]

i love to read the classics. thank you, joe.

*laughing*

Ah, Vella. I owe you one very long and serious demonstration of the wonders of the equine tongue.

That was brilliant.

Shanglan

 

[Guest]

*laughing*

Ah, Vella. I owe you one very long and serious demonstration of the wonders of the equine tongue.

That was brilliant.

Shanglan

im keeping tabs, just incase you forget.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Another vote for leaving them from me.

I've always felt that once a story was published (posted) that it was pretty much locked in stone unless there is some serious flaw in it -- like part of it is missing or corrupted.

This is the problem in being a devoted Yeats fan. "The friends that have I do it wrong. / Whenever I remake a song, / Should know what issue is at stake: / It is myself that I remake" - although I don't think Willy had saccharine erotica in mind when he wrote that. Nonetheless I've picked up his habit of never thinking anything final. I would consider all works to be "in progress" until such time as I cease respiration. I suppose that's half the problem - knowing that I might very well rewrite them at some point, I'm loathe to just delete them. And yet, as I aspire to higher things, they do gall me with their clumsiness.

If you are really unhappy with it you will of course delete, but you felt good enough at one time to post, not just one story but chapters of it.

Suggestion: Maybe you could change the titles, re-submit each one the same or slightly edited, with the title the same except add on the end of each title "My earliest work."

(...)

I didn't have to consider it, or even think about it. If you are unsure I would not delete until you are positive, my suggestion of "my earliest work" is to try to give you some ideas of not deleting, I am sure you can come up with others. See ya.

What clever and cogent advice. Lisa, you never cease to impress me. That's a good deal to think about.

Shanglan

 

[Lisa Denton]

For Lisa.
I love your nice big writing. Nice and easy to read:


See Spot Run.
Hump Leg, Spot.
G Spot, Spot.

See Spot bite Sub Joe on the butt, "Good doggie Spot."

I am having trouble reading stuff and am tryin to make it easy for you all cause I am such a nice person "You can slobber on my shoes now."

 

[Lisa Denton]

What clever and cogent advice. Lisa, you never cease to impress me. That's a good deal to think about.
Shanglan

If I could remember how I would put that in my sig line, THANK YOU.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Ah. The Literotica equivalent of having Watson at my elbow to whisper "Norbury" in my ear? . . .

As long as it isn't Holmes pointing out to you the strange thing the dog did in the night.

 

[BlackShanglan]

As long as it isn't Holmes pointing out to you the strange thing the dog did in the night.

I wouldn't say no. But then, I have a long-standing fixation on Himself.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Just read back over some of my first submissions to the site - the "Sweetness and Servitude" series.

Dear God, it's awful.

Badly overwritten, hideously sweet and sentimental at parts ... I was most ashamed.

Now the question is, what do I do with the buggers?

I don't really want to revise. I know that I could make it better, but really it's just stroke and I would rather concentrate on newer projects that have a little more depth and interest to them. I suppose some day I might revise if I was bored and restive, but really it looks like a lot of work for a not especially impressive result.

So do I leave them up, or take them down? Some people seem to like them; they've gotten decent votes and some pleasant PC's, and I don't entirely hate the premise. The last chapter I think worth saving. But on the other hand, I wince to think that if someone wants to see what sorts of things I write, s/he might pick one of those and think that's my goal. *cringe*

What would you do?

Hey Shang.

Simply put, your crap is better than most of what makes it onto the site. I keep my stories up, even the ones I look at now & cringe. Simply because I can see in them how far I have progressed. I can see the mistakes I made so cluelessly and it helps me concentrate on not making them again.

*HUGS*

 

[scheherazade_79]

I'm with Colly. Over the past few months my style has changed beyond recognition. I no longer write erotic fluff, but tend to go for a good storyline. I don't think my previous stories were bad, because they all received good votes, but... I don't particularly like them. I leave them up, because some people obviously like them, and also it's a good way of measuring how far I've come.

It reminds me a bit of a story about the English composer, William Walton. A while after he'd finished his first symphony and had it performed, he commented - "I don't like it, but it's how I felt at the time."

I love that symphony and I'm glad he didn't take it out circulation just because it wasn't to his taste

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I'm in agreement with everyone else so far. Whenever something's written for me, it gets saved somewhere (though where, how much prominence, and how often I reflect on it are different stories entirely). Of course, this is usually because I suffer from the anathema to editing that is "save the pieces of the broken dream". Often I'll have a decent concept or an intriguing scene or a character that I fall in love with or a turn of phrasing that I love and later find out that the section or work I wrote was crap or wouldn't work with a continuity line or whatever. So, it becomes a struggle in mere editing to cut these good bits out and try and get 'em on the new good writing.

Since I have that much trouble in mere editing situations of cutting out the crap, I can't see myself utterly banning from existence an entire story. Even if it is the biggest crap heap and I find myself no longer agreeing with the themes, it'll still have one thing I'll want to look back and remember fondly.

Chances are you'll find the same in your old stroke.

 

[MissLusty]

Leave it up. If you feel uncomfortable with it on the basis that people might read it and assume all your writing is that bad then place an author's note at the very beginning of it.
Stating that this was a piece done many years ago, that you have since gotten better etc.

I think leaving pieces up is a great way to check your progress and for other people to see how far you've come in your journey as a writer.

 

[Lonely Knight]

This could become complex, as I have no clue how to write code. Though I am a newbie to this writing thing, I say leave them. As a newbie, I know that I want to be able to see the progression of my abilities as a writer, should there be any. Today I am crawling, one day I hope to run. Thus it is unlikely that I will ever remove any of mine.

Perhaps there is a way to avoid the "new person tasting ones fare, disliking it because it is a first work, and not reading any others.” Right now our Submission page is sorted by Title and submission date. However, what if the sort was changed to submission date and then title? Well, immediately I see a minor problem should someone submit something out of sequence when doing several chapters but slipping in something for a contest or whatever. Surely there is a way to code around this, no?

Thus far, I have attempted to read the works of others in the chronological manner in which they were written by the authors. An exception to this happened when I read a work mentioned in the current "Read, vote, and feedback...." thread. After reading it I proceeded to read another, earlier work of the author. Damn if I didn't discover that there was a link from the older to the newer!

In any event, I still say leave them, and perhaps something might be done with the way the stories are sorted on our submission page.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

My reactions to what I have written invariably follow this progression:


While I am writing it, I think: “This is good! This is really good! I can’t wait until it is finished and I can show it to everybody.”

After reading the first draft: “If I correct all the mistakes and rewrite some of the shitty parts, this could be really good.”

After the final draft: “This is crap! I’m going to bury it!” OR: “This is pretty close to crap, but I’ll post it, anyway. If it is really savaged, I can always take it down.”

After the first friendly vote: “It definitely is lousy, but maybe it’s not as lousy as I think.”

After the first troll vote (or vile feedback): “Damn it! It may be shit, but it’s my shit! Just for that, I shall leave it up, even if the entire world votes it a ‘1’.”

After a dozen or more votes have levelled the rating off to a relatively constant standing: “Gee, I really wish it deserved that rating, but actually, it truly is crap!”




Editted to Add: Why not just add a date to the copyright in the byline. Like — "by Virtual Burlesque © February 2005."

 

[brightlyiburn]

See, I think you guys all got the wrong idea here. As I said, don't think of your older works as bad. They're just not as polished as newer works.

I found and some of the stories I wrote seven years ago, when I first began writing. The very first ones had: numerous structural problems, some tense problems, not enough description, etc. Yet there was still something pleasing about them, because I recognized my strengths in them. As they went on, the structure and discription improved, but I'm still way better now than I was then.
Since they were so old, I was able to look at them from a much more detached point of view. And I thought "Holy crap, a twelve-year-old wrote these!?" It's sort of like when you see a young child draw something that's pretty good for someone their age, even though they've had no real training or experience. I could see that even back then, I had something that communicated strongly and attracted people to my work.
That's how I've begun to view my older works now. I've recognized what makes my work distinctly "me", so when I look at that older stuff, I no longer see it as being bad. It's not as good but the peice that's most important does show. Find what it is that makes your work strong and learn to see it in your own peices. It's important, not just to you, but to your readers, to see how far you've come. If readers know you'll continue to evolve, they'll continue to want to read. And you'll continue to want to write.
With my drawing I've seen how far I've come and I'll look back at my old stuff and be like "Oh, good lord". But then I find something I could do well back then, and just add it in. Snowball effect...those things that weren't good got weeded out but those that are just get stronger and stronger. I always go back and look at my older drawings, to remind myself how much I've improved and keep myself from falling into a "this sucks" mindset.

And there's one more very important reason to view your older works not as bad but unrefined: fear. If you become afraid that what you write will be bad, you won't be able to utilize your full potential. I've recognized this in myself recently and have been working to surpass it. Don't compare yourself to other authors, either. You are not them. You might feel like you could never write something as well as them, but keep in mind that they cannot write something as well as you. To say "anyone could write like this" is wrong. No two authors do things the same.

My, I'm chatty today...

 

[oggbashan]

...My, I'm chatty today...

And why not when you have something worthwhile to say?

Development in an author is to be expected. Sometimes we can go too far and lose the freshness of our earlier work by overemphasising the technical side of the writing. The story is what matters. How you tell it is a matter of technique. If the technique is too polished the story might suffer.

Og