A story I was working on (Remember "Houston we have a problem"?) just flamed out and fell into the ocean. It is clear that I have different "writing voices", but I have a difficult time controlling that. I don't know what I am going to do with it now.
Today I read part of one of my first stories that was I published on Storysite first and then migrated it over to BCTS later. I now remember that Crystal was not that impressed with my writing at first, and I think she did some pretty heavy editing on both "MS Frankenstein" and "Desert Princess" though I don't know for sure.
Remember, in the early part of the century, the VA had me so high on psych meds that it is amazing that I could even make coffee.
I don't know if there are stealth Editor Fairies here and if anyone touched my work, I threw a fit because I wanted the stories to feel authentic to the culture in which they were written. A lot of my stories are written with a Middle Eastern backdrop minus all the Navy Seal, Rag Head references. Most of my Middle Eastern cultural experience was relatively positive, though there are certain painful realities.
If you listen to Arabic speakers talk, they leave out words that Americans take for granted, and Saudis can't do B's and P's. The reason for my peculiar sentence structure in some stories is to make the "voice" of the non-American speakers seem authentic, though with Canadian characters, I'm at a complete loss.
Here I am rattling on about what? Can't remember.
Gwen
Comments
Editing?
I don't do much editing but I never change dialog as that represents the way the character speaks, correct or not. The rest, though, will be put in correct American English. Isn't if fun, though, to go back and see early works and know that you have grown as an author?
Stories that are culturally correct.
In one of my stories, "Lt Katia In Afghanistan", the main protagonist was an Officer in the UK military so in my effort to make him seem culturally authentic, I used quite a few terms from that culture. Looking back, I tried hard and had fun, and those I know who are actually from there were most kind to me in spite of my own mucking about with the Queen's English.
I used to have my MS Word set to UK English, but I think hat Microsoft have done away with that now.
I have asked Erin to leave editing permission off on my stories. I used to correct a few things with new authors and they do not seem to appreciate that.
You were either heading for
You were either heading for the "What the heck was I thinking?" or the "Wow, I was really creative when I was younger, what happened to me?" door. I've been through both over the years. There's a piece of music that I wrote for a show about ten years ago that I still can't believe *I* wrote it. And there's stuff in my old 'writings' folder that I will never ever ever ever ever share with anyone and that I pull out to remind myself that experience is important and that no amount of creative talent can make some things work.
Either door tends to lead to some amusing anecdotes. :)
A Great Story Idea
I've got a story that was written with a typewriter, perhaps around 1990. I want to rework it but every time I begin to work on it I get nauseated.
:)
You need to find someone....
...who will scan and OCR the existing pages. Then it should be easier. And yes, sometimes I reread old blog threads that interested me, with comments, and sometimes I see nice long comment and read it and think "author has quite an interesting outlook, and some ideas are so close to mine"... Then look at the author nic-name... And see that it was me couple of years ago :-/
I've re-read my own work a few times
Usually when either trying to continue it or, more often, so I can see what I did wrong and compare my own thoughts against those of the community comments to see where future stories should take me. It's always interesting to do, and gives me a good idea of how much I've changed -- and improved -- as a writer in my years here.
I remember the one and ONLY time I ever published anything to StorySite. It was the intro to one of the first TG stories I ever tried to write, called "Emo Kids," a story I'd STILL like to do one day. I submitted the part as a test of the site, and when it appeared -- a couple of weeks later -- I was disgusted by the outcome. I know I don't write flawlessly by any means, but the story that popped out on StorySite was NOT the one I submitted, full of syntax, punctuation and spelling errors that made my skin crawl and hardly matched the document I'd copy/pasted into the submission window.
Of course, around that time I found BC, or at least one of its earlier incarnations, and began contemplating the more open platform on offer here. And the rest, as it were, is history.
StorySite, especially late in its life, was having a lot more issues than just a lack of time on Crystal's part. Combine that with the nigh-inaccessible state of the majority of its archives and at this point I've given up hope of it ever recovering.
Melanie E.
I try to write…
… what I would want to read. That has never been fiction before my present effort on BCTS and I’m finding difficulty in writing fiction unless I have the time and am in the mood fitted to reading it.
Rhona McCloud
Reread
I occasionally go back and reread some of my own stories, usually after a couple years when I don't remember many of the details of what I wrote. When I do that, I am often surprised by how many typos and such managed to slip through my previous editing, and I sometimes start to mentally rewrite parts.
The waking world is but a dream.
Your Stories Are Lovely
Perhaps, I just don't write stories that well, or at least they must be first person.
One of my favorite stories, "Alien Investigators" was written as a dated Journal, and I enjoyed doing it.
Consistency
That's one reason I go back, in order to keep timelines in order. That said, I do (as Rhona says) try to write things I would want to read, and so... I tend to stick to my favourite babies, Cold Feet and the Ride books.
Yeah I do
Some of it is good and some (especially what I posted on Storysite before it went bad) is pretty crap.
Ok, so I was just starting out writing anythnig but reports for the first time since I left school way back in '69.
My tastes in reading have changed over the years. Now I tend to stop reading if there isn't really a story being told.
My other pet gripe amongst so called professional writers is that often the book will come to a pretty abrupt ending. Almost as if the publisher said 250 pages no more and suddenly they get to 245 and go 'Oh Shit'.
But that is getting off the subject.
Some of my old stuff is hard to read. I have it all filed neatly by site and by date pf publication on my Macbook.
Some of it may be rubbish. some of my word is way out there and will never see the light of day but it is my work.
Samantha
Of Course
Every time I read an old story I look for ways to improve it. I also look for those inevitable typos that linger on. Many times I've put stories through complete rewrite.
Reading an old story gives me a new perspective. . .more like a reader's.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Ohhh...
There are tales that I reread for two reasons. Firstly, because some of them are 'mildly' autobiographical, I reread them for a reality check. I usually have a problem getting through those. And secondly, I may like some of the characters enough to want to reuse them in other contexts.
Peace at Your Table...
Kelly the Blake
On reading my own writing;
I actually try very hard not to. The chance that I will simply try to delete all copies and pretend I never wrote anything goes up the more times I read one of my tales, so most of them stay here in a sort of rough state.
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I was like this some 20 years ago...
I had not wrote any fiction then, but rereading own articles caused severe anxiety and desire to destroy :-)
But then my memory became less sharp :-) Now I can reread and edit my own writings 3-4 days after writing. :-)
Language corections,
Gwen, Canadian English is easy, be polite, and end sentences with eh?
"Lovely weather today,eh" Piece of cake.
Karen
Actually, I do enjoy reading my old stories.
I do read my old stories, though most of them aren't posted anywhere, they're just on the hard drive of my Linux box.
And, maybe it just shows I'm not much of a writer, but I enjoy rereading them. They take me back. Every story I write is, underneath it all, about discovering who I am. And even though I struggle with hating myself, I've never hated or felt embarrassed by the me I find in my stories.
(And, yes, I find the occasional typo. But usually I've read and reread the stuff so many times over such a long time, I've caught most of them.)
Yes...
...though in my case it doesn't generally mean fiction: articles and research from the newsletter I used to publish, old PMs, and to a lesser extent my forum entries here.
Hey, I like the way I write. And it's a fun way of procrastinating if there's a project I'm avoiding.
(Though I usually re-read other people's stories instead. Read Grover's Strange Happenings in Ragnorak County again last night -- one of my all-time favorites.)
Eric
Do others edit what others post?
...I hope not... I have asked others to proofread and over a year ago I gave someone permission to post a few of my stories as she helped with pictures. I miss her help and greatly appreciated it... I reread many of my stories if and when I hear complaints that I did not proofread them well enough before posting... Like someone said reading my earlier stories shows some changes... I have received a lot of constructive help over the last four years.
The BC community has been real good to me. I especially like reading the variety of stories that touch on different parts of my interests.
Hugs, JessieC
Jessica E. Connors
Jessica Connors
Yes, sure
I occasionally go back and read my stories and sometimes I forget what's going to happen. A few months ago someone correctly pointed out a continuity problem in one of them, and I was surprised by how much I'd forgotten.
And there are times when I go back and try to redo it all... but the effort never lasts. I'd like to re-do some of the Marcie stories, particularly The Madonna of the Future. What I find when I go back to almost any of my stories is that there are connections missing, emotions not felt, and I have to put them in.
But it's always fun. I laugh and cry all over again, just like I did the first time.