How Should I Go About Rebooting My Work?

[Alseki.]

I was writing an Epic here last year but then I got busy and it sort of fell off the track.

I wanted to improve upon it, so I asked for feedback. I was told it was too complicated and incoherent, and at that time the story also wasn't as solidly cemented in my head as it is now.

So, I decided to restart writing it from scratch and created another book/portal thingy for that.

But for several reasons that does not seem like the most feasible idea now.

Should I instead just re-edit the chapters in the previous one? That would be very tedious since the story is almost completely different one now, even if the events more or less remain the same.

If not, should I delete the previous one altogether? Is there an option to declare it abandoned?

 

[J_Chemist]

Do it over.

 

[georgelee5786]

Honestly just start from scratch. Take the old ideas and turn them over in your mind over and over, fixing them until you're satisfied. If they can't be salvaged, replace them. It will take a while, but the benefit is worth it

 

[billydbd]

square 1, pluck the goodies, and start from there. also add "Retold" to the title for the cool effect. goodluck!

 

[minimi22]

My advice would be to build a finished time line. What I mean by this is that before you go and rewrite the whole thing finish it undetailed in a timeline document. That way you get to consolidate your ideas. After that you can refine the time line until you get something you feel will work. Then you start the rewriting procces adhering to the timeline you built. If you get new ideas during the wiritng process then look at the timeline and see where those could fit without disrupting the story telling.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Normally, would not recommend this, but your case, I think it fits.
Rewrite the whole thing FIRST. Then, when you have finished, consider what to do.

 

[prognastat]

I'll be honest as a reader I don't tend to read re-writes. I might if the story just started, but if the story has been going for quite a few chapters that's way too big of an ask to me.

Of course if an author has re-written the work before I get to it I would try the re-write.

 

[Tyranomaster]

Two options here, and it really depends on the original work.

IF the original work is fairly popular (300+ readers), then you should just continue writing from where you left off. The reason for this is that you've got an established base of readers who will not care to re-read your story until you're caught up. Which means you're dooming your rewrite from the start. Further, if you're invested in your own story, it's best to finish the story before doing a rewrite. This is the path I've selected for my own story. My writing skills have increased a lot and there are many changes I want to make to my story. However, I know I'll have even more changes down the road that I'd want to make. Instead, I'll finish the whole web novel, and THEN do a rewrite. That rewrite I'll put up on Amazon and sell physical copies.

If the original work only has a handful of readers, and many drop it because of the aforementioned problems, then a rewrite might actually be helpful. It might attract many more readers who otherwise would drop the old series, as long as you've actually corrected your own issues as an author already. If you as an author haven't actually figured out your own issues, and only recognize the problems that others have pointed out, then the second you stop the re-write, and reach new content, it will again be plagued with issues. If you plan on doing a full rewrite, you should really sit down and plot out your story and subplots.

If you want advice on how to go about building up those writing skills, there are a few things you can do. If you're someone who learns well from tutorials, there are hundreds of them online, and our own @Story_Marc has a good series. If you learn from experience, then just keep gaining that experience, continue your story where you left off and build the skills up, with the intent of doing a rewrite once you're better. Another fantastic tool for building up your story telling skills is to play TTRPGs with real people as a dungeon master. It really helps with understanding behaviors that people enjoy versus don't enjoy, and guiding your readers (players) through a story.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Hey.

I'm "Rewriting" my story, but it's a "rewrite" in that I'm going back, chapter by chapter, looking for spelling mistakes and feeding it through an AI for alternate ways to rephrase awkward paragraphs. Instead of doing a full Reboot, which is what you are talking about, maybe just do that.

I write my stories to be reread repeatedly. I go in, from the beginning, with the plan that every time you reread the story, it will be a new story. Knowing the ending changes the story so that when you reread it, you get an entirely new experience. If you have this attitude, then finish the damn thing, then go back and do a "rewrite" instead of a "reboot".

 

[Alseki.]

@minimi22

I have a chronology, a few arcs and the end is defined, but it will be subject to change as the Epic progresses.

I will try to make it more solid as per your advice.

@TheEldritchGod

I would have considered the rewrite, though that would take a very long time, plus I am writing this Epic specifically for the purpose of being able to give myself a reason to write and upload, hence I reckon going with your suggestions in your latter message would suit me more.

@Tyranomaster

Thank you for such a detailed explanation, I think I definitely need to improve my writing skills more professionally, so I will look into your suggestions

@J_Chemist @georgelee5786 @billydbd @prognastat Thank you for replying as well.

 

[Tyranomaster]

@Alseki. For another good source of writing info, check out https://forum.scribblehub.com/threads/cortys-tip-jar.15699/

 

[prognastat]

Something you might be able to do is finish the entire story. Then take a year or more to figure out exactly how you want to fix the story and plan it all out then do a rewrite of the whole thing knowing how your story will be going from beginning to ending and also having given people time to be away from your story.

Then you can get new readers and also there might be more people willing to reread your story after they have forgotten about it at least a bit plus you rewriting so changing things they might be up for reading again. Chances are it will still perform not quite as well as the original as a decent few are just not going to want to reread anything.

 

[KuruKinaar]

I think you should both restart but keep the original draft to salvage it.
Rewrite the idea in an outline, from start to finish, the main plot/message of the story.
Then, from your original draft, take ideas and scenes from it that you like and edit/polish it.

I can tell you, I have 3 versions of the same story just with new characters/names/setting and I keep hashing out the story over and over again until I feel that it's right. It's okay to have a story you write fall off because you tried an idea and it didn't work, so now you know what you don't want to write/head towards.

 

[Arkus86]

As a reader, I will join the above statements that if I was reading your story and you dropped it halfway for a rewrite, then I would not bother reading the rewrite until it at least caught up with the original, even if I was invested in it, as I have seen too many rewrites that just ended up in the story abandoned completely.

 

[Beeteetee]

If you got time - I would recommend you to actually do both. Only make a reference that it's written by the same author.

For example, CasualFarmer did this with Beware of Chicken and Soaring Heaven's Isle - The author referred to it as alternate universe.

 

[FatElf]

I was writing an Epic here last year but then I got busy and it sort of fell off the track.

I wanted to improve upon it, so I asked for feedback. I was told it was too complicated and incoherent, and at that time the story also wasn't as solidly cemented in my head as it is now.

So, I decided to restart writing it from scratch and created another book/portal thingy for that.

But for several reasons that does not seem like the most feasible idea now.

Should I instead just re-edit the chapters in the previous one? That would be very tedious since the story is almost completely different one now, even if the events more or less remain the same.

If not, should I delete the previous one altogether? Is there an option to declare it abandoned?

The first story I tried to write was a bit of pantser one. I had the overall idea in mind, but didn't have any of the details, or even characters planned aside from the antagonist, main character and the main supporting one. The start flowed easily, but the more I wrote, the harder it was to keep things consistent. Plot hole galore, inconsistency with character from start to mind to finish.

When I finished "book1" I stopped and looked back and I hated it.

So, I'd say: keep the old one, learn more about writing techniques, then rewrite all your story with this new focus in mind. Patching any plot hole you find.

Here is what I did and am still doing (since I haven't finished rewriting the story yet.)
Three things that helped me a lot to get back into writing. I know there are still a lot to improve for myself, but I started here:

- I bought read and re-read the book: Techniques of the selling writer.
This one is a bit dated, some of the advice needs to be taken with a grain of salt, and the author is very opinionated about certain things. Nonetheless, it gives you a lot of practical and usable tools to write. Not vague ideas on how to improve. The book discuss from word selection on how to craft scenes and build tension. It is a phenomenal work, and it will sound uppity, but I think anyone interested in writing should give it a go.

- Snowflake story method.
By the end of book1 on my first story, I used to stare at the screen for minutes on end, write a paragraph, then immediately delete it, because I didn't like or it didn't fit. Still have this problem, and I don't think it will ever go away, some days are worse than others, but having an outline of the events, character, places and things I wanted it to happen for my story helps a lot.

Snowflake methods has a "10 step process" that helps you think of the story ahead of time. I don't use it for line by line plot, but just for overall events. I leave the minor details to be written in the moment. I think it is better that way, what I do try is always move the story toward the goals I've set on my planning. It flows really easy when I know where I want the story to go. Sometimes the first or second paragraph are bad, but I can just rewrite or rework them after I finished the writing session.

- Joined a critique group.
This one is by far the hardest. I joined the scribophile group, and there you can critique stories and have yours critiqued back. The amount of things you learn when people point out what you can improve is daunting.

Anyway, I guess this isn't really what you asked for, but I hope it helps!

 

[Alseki.]

@FatElf

Maybe not what I asked for, but something that I should know, thanks a lot!

 

[Jaymi]

idk how attached u are to this story, but I think it's best to just write a new story. Use everything you've learned to create an even better story. Also rewriting old stories is really not that fun :v
But if u really want to reboot that story I'd start from scratch yeah. You can delete the original, but you definitely don't have to, doesn't change much, really.

 

[melchi]

It depends on what your goals are. Like if the goal is for the story to get popularity and it didn't get a good reception starting over and doing some serious rethinking would be best. But if people liked it then you are doing something right so why change something that works?

If it doesn't matter what others think then search your heart, follow your soul.

 

[TsumiHokiro]

When I rewrote my current story, I rewrote it from the beginning. I had written the first 5 chapters and saved them, but when I returned to it, I found that during the years I had improved much. I also decided adding a lot of content, ending up with a very different story. If you are going to revisit a story, most of the time you decide to change at least some little thing, that's just the human nature; how many times have we not wished being able to do it differently? And when we are writing, it is our chance of doing it! So no matter how much you plan ahead, a few words will always be different if you do it different times of your life, even if there's only 5 minutes of difference in between them (you'll be a different person after all).

So considering my experience I'd suggest tackling your version as a draft of that which you have written, unless it is not very many words (maybe a couple thousand of words) and work from there. You can even work some parts ipsis litteris whereas other parts you would work ipsis verbis (transcribe word by word some times, other times, work with the same meaning) and be flexible with everything else.