[SpaceWeavil]

I need to ask advice from some of the writers around here more experienced than I am (which is probably most of you ). Basically I have been looking at some older fics of mine lately that had received few reviews and no ratings at all, despite a load of hits, with a mind maybe to rewriting the ones I think have got something worth salvaging. However I also now have a fic which has received my lowest rating ever in a very short space of time. I will be the first to admit it was sort of drabbly, really just exploring an idea that wouldn’t stop bugging me, but I’m thinking now maybe I shouldn’t have uploaded it at all, that maybe there is something awful about it that I just didn’t see.
A literary agent I worked with once told me that you only had one chance showing people you’re work, as after that people would think. ‘hey I read this already’ and wouldn’t go on, no matter what revisions you had done.

So I’m really not sure what to do. So what I’m asking is, if something has a low rating / bad reviews etc., would you rewrite it and repost, leave it in the hope that maybe someone out there likes it, or would you just remove it altogether?

[BittenBuggy]

[NancyBrooke]

I have looked at revised things when prompted by an author's request, e.g. some note on the forum or group or in summary saying, "hey, I revised this a lot, didn't feel comfortable with the first shot, think it's much better now, please take a look."

If it was an author I respected, person I'd 'talked' to on the forum or a story I had been intrigued by the first time I'd definitely give it a look.

[Philia]

Even if people don't read it twice, always consider there'll be new people (for example I joined only yesterday) who'll read it for the first time ... maybe if you'll revise it, these people will give you better reviews?

In any case, I'm always for revising stories ... but not for them... for myself, you know?

[Aerin]

SHUT UP!!! (Sorry, I saw Princess Diaries 2 yesterday) Spacey, I would re read any of your stories! I liked them when I read them, I was just so new, to fan fic and the site that I did not want to show my newbie ness.

Ms. BB, I Loved the Hairy Prisoner. I would love a sequel. I love stories that make you think differently about a character, and that story, made me think differently that is for sure.

I can not bring myself to finish some of the fics that I have started, because they are so poorly canonized. I would hope that if I wrote something that could be tweaked and made better that someone would read it again!

SO, I guess what I am saying is, I would and would love to read something that is "New and Improved." So scribble away!!!!

[Philia]

[SpaceWeavil]

[BittenBuggy]

[SpaceWeavil]

[Thuriniel]

[SpaceWeavil]

OK, I have another question on this same thread (and it is probably a stupid question – I excel at those )

My latest story I want to rewrite isn’t a problem, as I just pulled it and it hadn't been on particularly long. When I get the time to make all the changes it needs, I will just put it up as if it were a new story (which, let’s face it, it will be). I’ll put a note in the summary that it’s a revised version of the other so people won’t read it and go, hey I already saw this, close window. That’s all okay and I know what I’m doing there.

However…

I also eventually want to revise some of my earlier fics, which aren’t lousy enough that I want to pull them straight away before anyone sees them and increases my shame (IMO anyway) but which I know could be improved if I applied some of the skills I’ve acquired, thanks to feedback from you people. So, how do I do that? Do I rewrite chapter by chapter and just replace it, without removing the story completely? Or do I remove the whole thing and start again, which loses any ratings or reviews I already have? But then, since those reviews are for the old version, not the new, would it be better to lose everything and start from scratch?

What do you guys think, or what do you do in this situation?

[sindohte]

Jess,

I will definitely be interested in hearing what people have to say because I jumped the gun with my Welome to the Family fic and now I am not sure whether it will dovetail neatly with Origins, which I consider to be the more accurate version of the tale I am trying to tell. What I will probably end up doing is incorporating the chapters that I have already posted, along with the 5 or so unfinished chapters and then after revising them madly, add them to the Origins story. As to whether I will delete Welcome to the Family, probably not because it has a chapter that I wrote specifically for GLT that I don't want to delete So I suppose I will leave it up there and just change the story summary and let people know that it is an earlier draft/alternate version of a newer story.

S

[Elentari]

Don`t know what I should tell ya. I personally go for the Professor`s way of thinking- which is, do it over and over and over again. I cannot stop myself, really, specially as time passes by and I realise the flaws and the things that could be done differently, better. I tried to keep the ever-changing story off OSA for a long while so I could post it here when I had a more-or-les definite version, however.
As for the reviews, I do not know. I guess it`s up to you, really.

[Viv]

I've done it both ways. Most of the time, I just insert rewrites without pulling the story completely. I'm always going back into Dawn Twilight and adding new clues in early chapters. I know this makes it hard on folks who've read the older versions, but it *is* a work-in-progress. Still, it might not be wise.

I've also pulled a story and revised it secretly. I haven't reposted it yet, so I don't know how that will go over. Let me know how your experiment goes.

[sindohte]

Very naughty of you Viv *wags finger* Now I must go back and re-read Dawn Twilight.