Do you ever go back and re-write old chapters?

Rachel_Leia_Cole

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Definitely. My voice has changed as I delve deeper into the world, I’ve learned the nuances of the characters. So I did a rewrite of my first book after starting book 3. The plot remained, but I changed some of the sentence structure and cadence. And edited out areas of repetition.
 

Rachel_Leia_Cole

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Yeah, I had done that before, but I did it at a really bad time when I was dealing with major, life altering health issues. I regret touching those chapters, but at the time, my mind wasn't really all there.
I actually quit editing my book for like a year because I’d something similar. My dad died and I just couldn’t bring myself to be bothered. It didn’t help that I left off right before a funeral chapter lol. Did you have backups of the original chapters? Or were they altered for good?
 

FRWriter

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Not really... my first chapters are so awful, but I just can't motivate myself to heavily rewrite 30 chapters and then another 120 chapters, which need a light touch-up as well.
 

L1aei

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I actually quit editing my book for like a year because I’d something similar. My dad died and I just couldn’t bring myself to be bothered. It didn’t help that I left off right before a funeral chapter lol. Did you have backups of the original chapters? Or were they altered for good?

Thankfully there are backups. :sweat_smile:
 

Eldoria

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My older chapters tended to be heavy-telling. As my narrative skill improved, I became uncomfortable reading them.

It's not that they were bad... I think the characters and plot were quite good. However, the lack of immersion made the reading experience flat.

Now, I'm also actively rewriting my older chapters. I've finished rewriting volume 1 and am now starting to rewrite the early chapters of volume 2 after I managed to write the unreleased epilogue for volume 2 last month.

My ultimate goal is to create fiction that is truly worth reading.
 
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Juia_Darkcrest

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I stopped one of my works because I want/need to go back to the start and begin again. I kept changing my end goal, which is fine normally, after every couple of chapters and increased my pacing to the point that I had to jump through hoops to fill all the plot holes I was making.
 

JayDirex

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I've started getting into the habit of editing on my older chapters whenever I post a new chapter. Just because my older chapters aren't as good, in my opinion.

What do ya'll do?
All the time. if not days, sometimes years later.
 

Zagaroth

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Absolutely.

I rarely do so 'from scratch', most of them could be looked at as extremely heavy editing, but there are a couple where I opened up a new document and started writing the events over on a blank sheet.
 

Omarfaruq

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I've started getting into the habit of editing on my older chapters whenever I post a new chapter. Just because my older chapters aren't as good, in my opinion.

What do ya'll do?
I don't at all, i don't have that much time and it's very exhausting. I only write because I don't want to waste my free time.
 

onehunter

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I'm quite new to writing, and I've already significantly edited early chapters. I try to improve on bad habits I catch, but in a year, I bet I look back and want to rewrite them again.
 

CanOfTuna

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I plan to do an extensive edit pass on the older chapters whenever a new volume is finishes. Reason being is that my writing has actually improven since then haha
 

AlexRiven201

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Oh, yes, quite a lot! I oftentimes post about it on my main SH page/Lounge. I've gotta get better at keeping up with the forums too lmao

Check out my work if you're a fan of dark urban fantasy of epic scale :3
 
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