Fic Talk > General Discussion
Back and thinking about rewriting
MaggieW:
Hello all. I've been away from AbsoluteChaos for a few years now, and fanfic in general. But a class on fanfiction at a recent writer's workshop held at my university is drawing me back. I've gone back through an old flash drive that had a lot of my writing on it (though some has disappeared), and I've gone back and read some of my old work.
Yikes... :o ???
Have you ever re-read some of your old fanfic and thought to yourself "Yuck. I wrote that? and worse, I posted it?"
So... I'm considering doing a major rewrite of what I've posted. Have you ever gone through that? Made that decision?
Sakabelle:
--- Quote from: MaggieW on November 25, 2017, 01:32:28 PM ---a class on fanfiction
--- End quote ---
Ummm first of all I need to take this class lol.
Anyway, the answer to your original question is yes. But I feel like that's a good thing because it means that you've grown as a writer.
I don't think I've ever re-written anything though. I usually just take what I've learned and moved on to the next idea I'm working on. I just try to make each fic better than the last one.
RokofAges75:
Welcome back, Maggie! I agree with Steph - a class on fanfiction sounds amazing!
I have definitely had those thoughts when looking back at some of my old stories, but I leave them up in their original state so I can see the improvement I've made since writing them. Like Steph said, it's a good way to see growth.
I have only tried rewriting a story once, and it was a terrible experience. I got burnt out, and I don't think the story really got all that much better. It just ended up killing any inspiration I had to keep writing it, and so neither version got finished.
Instead of rewriting old stories, I tend to recycle certain aspects of their storylines in new stories and improving on them. It's fun to see how much better I can tackle certain topics now than I could then, and doing it with different characters and storylines keeps it fresh.
If you are going to rewrite, my advice would be to keep a copy of the original versions of your stories somewhere, even if they're not posted online. If nothing else, you'll enjoy going back to compare if and when you do finish the rewrites.
Sakabelle:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on November 25, 2017, 09:53:01 PM ---Instead of rewriting old stories, I tend to recycle certain aspects of their storylines in new stories and improving on them. It's fun to see how much better I can tackle certain topics now than I could then, and doing it with different characters and storylines keeps it fresh.
--- End quote ---
This is a good point. I did this a bit when I transitioned from writing BSB fic to 1D fic - there are a couple stories I did where the plotlines are pretty similar to something I'd done in my previous fandom but because I'd been writing longer at that point, I feel like being able to handle that plot was done better.
RokofAges75:
That's a good idea, to re-use story ideas in a different fandom. Most readers would never know the difference, and I bet it's interesting to see how the story changes with different characters.
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