Fic Talk > General Discussion

Rewriting Old Stories?

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shrinkingviolet:
I don't even know if anyone remembers the stories I used to have on AC, but this applies to all writers.

I was going through my stories folder here on the computer (which is bulging with files, I need to clean it out), and came across a fic that I (think) I started writing in '03/'04. I read through the first few chapters, cringing at occasional bad grammar and the POV -- It was first person and switched from character to character throughout the chapters. But, I remembered how much fun I had writing it, and opened up my 'notes' for the story, and realized that I never really had it go where I wanted it to.

My question is, has anyone here ever pulled up old fics and rewritten them? I'm not talking just going through and fixing grammar and spelling, I mean actually trashing what you had and starting from scratch? Because now I'm full of ideas that would change the entire thing from the beginning (a slightly different plot, switching characters around, etc.).

Any thoughts?

Sakabelle:
That's actually the reason I'm here...

Back in 1999-2001 I was writing BSB fanfic non stop, and then I sort of got caught up in other things and never really finished anything I was writing.  A few months ago I found Backstreet-Fiction...which ended up leading me here and I started writing my old story again, changing the plot a little and fixing holes that made the story pretty fake.  It's still pretty unrealistic, but I'm having fun writing it :) I started it over from scratch and it's coming together a lot better than it did back when I was 13 when I first started writing it hehe.

I have a couple of other older fics that were actually finished, and I sort of cringe when I read them, but since they're done (the original one was far from being finished..) I'm kind of weary to go back and re-write them.  Maybe one day I will.

honey:
I did it once and was MUCH MUCH happier with the outcome the second time around. I thin kit really just depends on how much you'd like to do it. If you think you'll enjoy working on a story you already wrote once, then I'd say go for it because it could turn out to be very fulfilling. But, if you start and realize you don't have the patience for it then there's really no harm in leaving it the way it is. We all have old stories that we aren't exactly happy with. Its kind of nice to see how we improve as we go along.

RokofAges75:
We sort of did this with Code Blue... we started out actually rewriting, keeping some scenes but adding new ones to them and taking out others.  Then it got tedious, and we ended up just editing the rest to fit the changes we had made.  I'm glad we did it because I think it did improve the story, but I would never do it again.  It was such a chore to finish what we had started, and it delayed the actual story for years.

The only time I have ever rewritten a story myself was with my very first attempt at fanfic.  I started a story and got pretty far on it, but never finished it and never dreamed of putting it online anywhere.  I stopped when I had an idea for a new story, started that, finished it and got it hosted online and moved on to its sequels, and I never went back to that very first story. Then I lost it in a computer crash.  But I had always liked the idea of it, so I went back to it a year or so later and started writing it again from scratch.  That was "Years of Grace," which isn't on AC, but is posted on my site.  It's not an amazing story, but it's okay, and I'm glad I did rewrite it and finish it.  It turned out to be a lot different and a lot better than the original.

julilly:
I had a fic that was relatively popular and people kept bugging me to update but I really didn't like it. I didn't like the style, the grammar, the characters, nothing but I liked the plot itself. So I completely trashed it and started from scratch just using the same ideas. It worked out.

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