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I've been going back and reading through some of my previous work. A few glaring mistakes stood out to me that I corrected asap. Then I started noticing little mistakes. A wrong pronoun here, or the wrong use or spelling of a word. Before long I felt like changing a few things in the story overall. It got me thinking...
How do people honestly feel about revisions and/or retcons in a story? I personally find retcons jarring, if not done in tangent with revisions. Methodical revisions on the other hand... Well, nobody's perfect. I feel most of us improve over time. Going back to look at old stories, or other works of art, we find ways to make them better, or can see it from another angle.
Perhaps I'm overthinking it all. As I sit here looking at my work, I can't help but try to make it perfect. I think it needs to be done before I feel I can move on to more of the same story. Otherwise, it just gets lost again until I re-read it a decade later. Maybe this is why some actors claim to never watch their own movies. Thoughts?
~Taylor
Comments
We all make mistakes
in our lives and especially in our creative work.
What is perfection? Who decides the rules of perfection? You? Me? Some guy on the street?
My advice is not to get caught up in the odd adverb and the niceties of english grammar. It will stop you from moving on and creating more work.
Accept that your work like mine and everyone else's is not perfect. One author published a novel that was totally devoid of punctuation... go figure.
Just make sure that you know what you did wrong and try your hardest not to make them again.
Samantha
Revision
Steven Pinker, parodying the Jeremiahs: "The world is ending! Our youth aren't revising enough!"
Somebody: "There is no good writing, only good rewriting."
Revision should be part of the writing process. If we're talking about early chapters vs. later chapters in a story, the story should have been revised and inconsistencies smoothed over before being let loose in the world.
If we're talking about sequels to stories, well we're probably stuck. We have to hope that we haven't put in something inconsistent with the previous works. In a long serial, "Early Installment Weirdness" may be inescapable. Maybe the early stories were rendered meaningless and irrelevant. (A worry expressed by the authors of the "Quest for Glory" game series.)
The "chicken" aspect of "Back to the Future II" grated on me. On the other hand, I didn't notice the difference between Marty assuming he would be a rich rock star contrasting with his fear at the beginning, until someone pointed it out. Then I realized that both differences (even the different Jennifer!) could be the consequence of the new timeline.
-- Daphne Xu
Books
This is why I realized that I had to have the entire books drafted before posting any bits of them, even as 'Parts' let alone chapter by chapter. If the plot is a simple serial, i.e. a continuous march of time from a single point of view, then publishing each chapter as they're done can work. But this really locks the author in with those scenes.
When things get more complicated, especially with multiple points of view (let alone timelines), unless the author is a certified Super-Genius, not having the complete work drafted and edited as a whole would definitely limit things. Many scenes or even entire chapters of my own stuff have found themselves pitched and rewritten due to realizations smacking me in the face in a later chapter. The order of chapters themselves can get shuffled once I can stare at the entire thing.
As for writing sequels, yep, you're stuck with the previous novels as is.
That being said, going back to fix typos, grammar, or even tightening some phrases for a work published only online? I don't see the harm in that. Not all of us have dedicated editors helping us out (I certainly don't). Dramatic scene and story changes though would be something different...
Some of my early work makes me shudder.
I've always considered myself pretty good at stringing a coherent sentence together. However, looking back at some of my early work, I sometimes doubt that I can string a coherent thought together, let alone turn it into a sentence that makes sense.
Editing a previous story may be good for your soul, just so you won't dwell on the mistakes there, but I'm not sure your fans would take the time to reread your work and appreciate your revisions. That said, if you are offering them up for sale, such as in eBook form, then the fans who haven't purchased a copy yet will get the benefit of your efforts. In writing sequels, it is incumbent on the author to keep the latter work consistent with the former. Reworking the former is really the hard way to do it, especially if it's up for sale.
In short, reworking your online works may be good for you, but else where... not so much.
I've recently given in and employed editors. Many of your fans will happily edit for you for free, even if you're planning to sell the work. I recruited a half dozen who agreed to work for a free eBook of the finished work. I kick myself for not doing it sooner. The improvement in my work has amazed me. The trouble with proofing our own work is we know what we wanted to say and when we read it that's the way we read it. Only after time, when the memory of what we wanted to say fades, can we objectively proof the work. Others can do it the first time through.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Repairs
I wouldn't call fixing the 'mechanical' errors of a posted story a revision, and I've never been really clear on what a "Retcon" is supposed to be. There is such a wild difference in the stories labeled "Retcon" I suspect nobody knows for sure.
Repairing a story's mechanical mistakes is wasted time only if you assume that there will not be any new readers after a period of time, or that no readers will go back and reread your story. You can increase their enjoyment by smoothing out the rough spots that may impede the flow of the store.
There are certain authors that have the same mistakes in every story they write. One writer frequently fails to use 'ed' when writing in past tense. Another puts two, sometimes even three speakers in the same paragraph, without any attribution or even closing the quotes on the first speaker and opening quotes on the second speaker. Yet another is not consistent in their character's name, changing it several times in a single chapter. These are just a few things, I'm not even counting misuse of punctuation on things, like, commas. (stet)
When this continues to occur in story after story them I conclude the writer has no respect for their readers.
Either get someone, or several someones to proofread your finished chapters, or let them sit for a week or two then double-check them before posting.Your readers will thank you, even if they don't say so.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
new readers
we're coming along all of the time. I didn't read any of your Baily stories until long after you posted them. I didn't get driven away by errors but I'm sure I noticed some. As someone has already said we all make mistakes so I just read on unless they are so common as to ruin any continuity in reading for me. There is a prolific author here who switches tenses in mid-sentence so often that I cannot finish reading any of her stories. Yours were certainly not in that category. Still correcting mistakes will be of benefit for the next batch of new readers.
The Line - in My Mind
If you are correcting an error, but not changing what previous readers would logically have understood when first reading the story; Have at it. If you are making a change or adding something that will change previous readers' understanding of the story; then, I think that you should post a blog and talk about the change you've made (and where to find it or them) in the next new posting of that series. Also, if you've made a significant change to a stand alone story or completed series, let your readers know; so, that they can choose to give the story a new look if they want.
Mostly Clean Up
It is mostly clean up as I look through old postings. A glaring mistake popped out on a certain character's age, that I fixed immediately. I don't plan on making any major changes to the plot of the story in question, but I have run into some parts that could use more clarity. A certain part of the story was confusing to start with for readers, and after re-reading it myself, I can see that now.
And as I looked through that part of the story, I felt myself wanting to flesh out that part of the story as well as other areas. Which is when I decided to post this. Because although it will not necessarily change events, it would add more story within established story. Something akin to adding Rogue One to Star Wars.
Hence my curiosity on what others think. I personally am looking at it from the stance of thinking it would be beneficial. However, I can understand if some people would be upset by the changes. Many get upset when an original work is messed with, even by the creator.
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.
Side story
> "it would add more story within established story."
You could make it a side story, a separate story. Then they could read it without having to read the entire section.
-- Daphne Xu