RANT-Don't rewrite your story that has already progressed too far ?

[Supperset]

I hate it when author waste their time rewriting their story, especially if the story has progressed too far rewriting and will take too much time. For those kind kinda of author I want to politely ask, WTF is wrong with you?

Like, here I am reading a very nice webnovel for few days managing to finish most of the released content (~300 chapter) and this headless author decided to rewrite his story because he didn't like some of the starting stuff after he re-read his own webnovel.

I don't care if you don't like that the protagonist seemed a bit sexist for opening the door for a girl, I don't care if all the main characters are white and I sure as hell don't care if that bartender died for the sake of dying. I don't even f*cking remember a shit about how the protagonist and his aunt has risque moments.

And what the heck do you mean by the pacing being wacky and unnecessary pov shifts, you are already deep in the story and now you remember, to better your pacing, for the love of your made-up god continue the story and the implement changes their rather than holding your story and your readers hostage.

Huuuuuuuuu*

Okay, that was a lot of words. On the other note, I love reading story i genuinely do and I have read stories with worse grammar and punctuation you can imagine so please be kind to this world and don't do things like this. Please ? ?

 

[Deleted member 206441]

wrong with you?

They are a pantser, they ran out of ideas, hoping by re-writing will help them write an ending or give them more ideas to progress..

Usually... it does not.

 

[badomen]

They are trying to improve and better themselves. You should try sometimes too. Go outside. Touch grass.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

If you were on a very prolonged hiatus rewrite is the only thing you can do. Other than that I don't know.

 

[Corty]

They are trying to improve and better themselves. You should try sometimes too. Go outside. Touch grass.

He is right though. You don't rewrite an ongoing, 300-plus chapter story out of nowhere.

Can't expect current readers to start rereading either, that's just dumb. Especially if it hampers the publishing of new chapters.

If you were on a very prolonged hiatus rewrite is the only thing you can do. Other than that I don't know.

At that time, just delete and repost it all as a new book.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

At that time, just delete and repost it all as a new book.

Don't know about deleting, otherwise that's what I've meant. You rewrite and post a separate, rewritten version.

 

[badomen]

He is right though. You don't rewrite an ongoing, 300-plus chapter story out of nowhere.

Can't expect current readers to start rereading either, that's just dumb. Especially if it hampers the publishing of new chapters.

Better rewritten and continued than dropped halfway through forever because the author outgrew the story.

 

[Alyxx]

They are trying to improve and better themselves. You should try sometimes too. Go outside. Touch grass.

Most of the time they just end up quitting. What's wrong with bad early chapters anyway. I think it's really cool that you can see yourself improve chapter by chapter and see your own growth overtime, instead of trying to make the perfect story then inevitably fails because everytime you improve you will see the imperfection in your own work, that's just a sisyphus.

 

[Eldoria]

Maybe she/he's too much of a perfectionist. I recently reread my novel and was surprised by how different my last chapter was from the latest released chapter, both in terms of narrative, grammar, and plot presentation. I also revised it, especially the messy grammar. Well, at least I won't be disappointed when I see my writing again.

But I'm not on hiatus... new chapters are still being released regularly.

From this, I've realised that the writing skill can improve... so I wouldn't be surprised if some writers admit to feeling nauseous looking at their old writing and being tempted to revise it.

Spoiler: Blood Rose Princess

Blood Rose Princess Just Wants to Live in Peace with Her Little Daughter - Vol 2 Chapter 40: Bloody-Dust – The Beginning of the Bloody Tragedy | Scribble Hub

www.scribblehub.com

 

[RepresentingWrath]

What's wrong with bad early chapters anyway.

The fact readers are picky and they won't start reading a story that starts out boring. You can see a lot of people share the sentiment of "Why should I wait for X chapters for the story to get interesting?" Some authors actually want to grow their stories, to get more readers or money.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I don't care if you don't like that the protagonist seemed a bit sexist for opening the door for a girl,

What kind of completely stupid writer thinks that...?
Honestly, it's called chivalry, and sadly it's dwindling in the male population by the day.

 

[badomen]

Most of the time they just end up quitting.

This is their right.

What's wrong with bad early chapters anyway.

If the difference in skill between early chapters and new chapters is too big it can scare away new readers. It can also reflect poorly on the author if they want to do this for money.

I think it's really cool that you can see yourself improve chapter by chapter and see your own growth overtime, instead of trying to make the perfect story then inevitably fails because everytime you improve you will see the imperfection in your own work, that's just a sisyphus.

Artist will often delete old works from their portfolio once their skills improve enough. It is even recommended to show off only the best works.

Wanting to improve should always be supported. only thinking like in this post makes things always stay at the same stagnant level.

 

[SirContro]

Nah, you should. If I don't like the picture I'm painting and I know that if I continue painting it that way, it's going to turn out worse, I have no care to continue and may as well start from scratch.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Rewrites are good. Means the author isn't comfortable with his/her style or writing, and is constantly improving his/her craft. Face it; websites like this are just 'testing grounds' for accomplished authors to see if their ideas are good for reader consumption. Expect rough drafts masqueraded as 'magnum opus'.

Even I, when there's no one reading my works, do rewrites to sharpen my writing and mind. And I already did a million and 200k words.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I wound up having to revise some significant sections of Between Worlds for PocketFM - wound up completely messing up the chapter count as a result. But, now that they're asking me to remove it from here, that's no longer a big deal, I guess...

 

[Tyranomaster]

I do firmly sit in the camp that you should finish the story before you rewrite it. You *should* be improving as an author constantly through experience. If 300 chapters was enough that you felt the early stuff was so bad you *need* to rewrite it, in another 300 chapters of rewriting, you'll feel the same way about it again, at least in theory. It's better to conclude the story, then do a full rewrite.

I think another argument that is valid is that by rewriting before you reach the final stages of your book, you're also not practicing your ending portion, one of the more critical parts of a book. If you wait until the end, you know the end, which means you can begin sprinkling in all the foreshadowing that you want into the opening parts. A novel makes sense in all of it's context. If you start rewriting before the end, you'll end up rewriting a third time because of that.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I do firmly sit in the camp that you should finish the story before you rewrite it. You *should* be improving as an author constantly through experience. If 300 chapters was enough that you felt the early stuff was so bad you *need* to rewrite it, in another 300 chapters of rewriting, you'll feel the same way about it again, at least in theory. It's better to conclude the story, then do a full rewrite.

I think another argument that is valid is that by rewriting before you reach the final stages of your book, you're also not practicing your ending portion, one of the more critical parts of a book. If you wait until the end, you know the end, which means you can begin sprinkling in all the foreshadowing that you want into the opening parts. A novel makes sense in all of it's context. If you start rewriting before the end, you'll end up rewriting a third time because of that.

I agree.

 

[Bartun]

I am completely rewriting my story. I'm already halfway through it. My saving grace was that I had already finished the book, so there's no harm, I guess?

 

[Arkus86]

Better rewritten and continued than dropped halfway through forever because the author outgrew the story.

Eh... usually the rewrite does not even reach halfway of the original dropped story, and ends up abandoned anyway...

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I did it because I wanted to physically publish it. Also, I left the OG story the same and just released the rewrite later. The Og is still going with minor hiatus status.