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Have you ever rewritten your first story?

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
Anyways, keep writing, and take the pressure off yourself. I didn't draw for 20 year between the lioness and the skull wall, and perhaps I should have. And maybe I should go back and finish the painting, because I really like it despite what some folks say about it being a terrible cover. Just love what you do, and get over the criticism. if you're doing your best, it's all you can do. And find people who you believe in and who will encourage you in the right direction. This can be a really lonely journey, writing. it can be really dispiriting in a lot of ways. Self criticism is fine, because it helps you do your best. But writing is harder than drawing, I think. When drawing, you are your own barometer of whether you think something looks good. Writing is meant to be a relationship with a reader. And it's so much harder to impress someone with a story than with visual mediums.
 
I know that I'm younger than most people on this forum, and I've likely finished less books than anyone here, but I get this feeling of nostalgia for one of my older worlds. My first story to be exact. I know it's an unfinished pile of garbage but there's always that knowledge that it's MY special pile of garbage. And I've toyed around with the idea of ressurecting it, if only for the giggles.

Of course, with the fleeting nature of ideas, it's very possible ( and highly likely) that this thought will just get bogged down by another series of WIP ideas. That being said, I find myself thinking about my first story from time to time.

So I was wondering, have any of you actually gotten around to rewriting one of your earlier or even first works? Did you fall in love with it again? Have you played with the idea of doing so? I'd love to know.

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Since I'm in still in the middle of my first real story, I can say I have not, due to not having finished it yet. I will most likely rewrite some if not all of it at a point in the future, and will probably repeat this process a few times before I'm satisfied. That's just the person I am.
 
No. I don't want to rewrite it.
My first story sucked. I write when I was 8, and apparently I have no idea how math and weapons work and a lot of other things.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
This thread brings to light a good question though: should we rewrite stories of old? I suppose, like the answer to most other things in life, it depends. I don't normally rewrite stories for the same reason I don't reread books, because there are too many stories I want to tell/experience in this short life. Why waste my time on something I've already written/read?

However, sometimes we get ideas for stories that we don't feel qualified to tell mostly due to where our skill is at the time. For example, there's one novel I wrote about 2 years ago that I think about often. It had a tremendous amount of potential but I was a worse writer 2 years ago than I am now. Since then, I've learned a ton about plot, story structure, characterization, etc. So lately I've been thinking about rewriting it because the experience would be an improved one now. I can do it justice, tell it with more experience and maturity in skill.

So yeah, for me it's a question as to whether or not it's worth it for me to spend my time rewriting an old story. This one, however, I do believe can be commercialized so the investment would be one spent well.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
I'm with you, Chesterama. I never had a "golden idea" but I do think that the book I wrote in 2008 has potential to draw readers. So, that's why I'm rewriting that one, rather than the first, which is just too awful to ever appeal to anyone. Since it's my goal to publish now, I have to think about which has the most potential. However, if I just wanted to see my golden idea reached (assuming that first novel was said idea), then I suppose it would make sense for my own personal feeling of satisfaction, that I finish it by rewriting.

Yeah, it really does depend. I hope you rewrite the one you really liked from two years ago! I'm at the point where I won't begin anything new until I finish some of the older ones I love, but it's really hard work. Basically starting all over, but instead of a first draft that has no "rules" or constraints, this one has some already set down in the first draft that I can't simply "change" because it would ruin the whole story. So, yeah, it's doubly difficult (or maybe like ten times as hard) to rewrite something you wrote years earlier, unless you're really prepared to throw things out in huge chunks. :(
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
For me the first stories were short ones that I wrote to illustrate what day to day life was for regular inhabitants in the setting I was creating. They rarely passed the 2,000 word mark. Rewriting any of them is no effort. I'll probably go back to my story about the polar elf and rewrite it again in a few years, just to see how my writing has changed since then.

I guess I should also point out that by "first story" I'm referring to stories I wrote since I got into writing as an adult. I wrote a lot of stories as a kid, but those were all for school in one way or another. I don't have access to them anymore, and I have no emotional connection to any of them - that I can remember. After I left school I didn't write fiction for nearly two decades.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
I'm with you, Chesterama. I never had a "golden idea" but I do think that the book I wrote in 2008 has potential to draw readers. So, that's why I'm rewriting that one, rather than the first, which is just too awful to ever appeal to anyone. Since it's my goal to publish now, I have to think about which has the most potential. However, if I just wanted to see my golden idea reached (assuming that first novel was said idea), then I suppose it would make sense for my own personal feeling of satisfaction, that I finish it by rewriting.

Yeah, it really does depend. I hope you rewrite the one you really liked from two years ago! I'm at the point where I won't begin anything new until I finish some of the older ones I love, but it's really hard work. Basically starting all over, but instead of a first draft that has no "rules" or constraints, this one has some already set down in the first draft that I can't simply "change" because it would ruin the whole story. So, yeah, it's doubly difficult (or maybe like ten times as hard) to rewrite something you wrote years earlier, unless you're really prepared to throw things out in huge chunks. :(

This would mostly be a redrafting process. Characters, setting, and general plot would be mostly the same but I wouldn't be using the original script as an outline of any sort.
 
Would even drunk you want to read a 12 year old's 79,000 word vomit?? Lol. It was bad. It was baaaaad.

Anyways, I think we should all write the stories of our writer journeys on a thread here. Or something. Because I think it would be pretty fascinating to see where we have all started and been and how we all ended up here. (I ended up on MS googling fantasy writer forums. Don't remember why. I lurked here for several months before getting an account.)

I second this notion, despite being late to reply :)
 
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