Revisions and Resurrections

When you're working on a story to publish here, how many drafts do you usually do before it sees light? Is it one-and-done? Do you give it a 'twice-over' to catch obvious errors (grammar, continuity, etc.), or do you commit to multiple major re-writes? If you're doing full revisions, how long do you leave it before having another go at the story? Have you ever returned to a story you've already published to 'fix it up?'

Okay, so here's my process:

Initial draft.

At a future date(it varies), I read it over and look for logic and plot holes. I note them. Another day, I use to fill in said holes I find.

I read through to correct redundancies, correct sentences that don't sound right. This trims a lot of fat. I do two passes of this and it can take days.

I run my story through a website that provides the top twenty words, two-word and three-word phrases. When I reduce the frequency of those to a respectable amount I move to the next step.

I read it over again, then run through Grammarly to help with anything important I miss. Reading it all over one more time is optional since Grammarly mostly is for comma stuff and hyphens nowadays.

Submit the story at my convenience.

Time from drafting to the final product varies. Last story I published, I drafted that in November 2023. In fact, two stories published in May were drafted in 2023. Only story of my last four published that was drafted this year was the comp story.

I am all over the map.

Sometimes an idea takes hold, I start writing, and bam, I've got a draft I like and just need to do editing. The final product resembles the original draft, just with fix-ups and better wording.

At the other extreme, there are stories I keep writing and trying new approaches and hammering away at drafts and ... yeah. There's an idea I had pre-pandemic for the Tentacles category that has now morphed into an s-f/fantasy piece that will probably end up on Storiesspace. The basic premise remains intact but I lost interest in the erotic element and kind of sidelined the Lush version. Had to change protagonist name and some details, too, because I kind of stole the original for another story in the interim..

Currently, I have a long (8700ish) word story that I am (a) trying to put into publishable condition and (b) debating splitting in at least two parts given reader proclivities here. It will probably show up in some form soon but kind of sits in the middle. Lots of drafts but never straying too far from the what I started with, just lots of changes in details.

Oh Lordy, I’m gonna look like a complete fruitcake.

I used to write stories in one sitting when I first started here… write, edit, publish in one day. Only kept one draft to work off of. Then, things changed. I’d start a story and it would take a week to finish. Still just kept one draft. For editing, I often do a voice recording and play it back to catch flow issues. I use Grammarly mostly for typos and commas. I’ve never spent much time editing.

I rarely do rewrites. I’ll just delete it if I finish a draft and hate it.

I’ve also deleted (I think) three competition stories after they published. Deleted other regular stories, too. Sometimes I get imposter’s syndrome, feel embarrassed and delete. Other times I just don’t feel like being judged, or feel self-conscious putting myself out there, and hit delete.

I’ve rarely pulled back a story, changed it, then resubmitted. Maybe twice in almost 300 stories.

Now, I struggle with focus. Start a bunch of stories and they sit in Docs unfinished. But I spend more time editing. I swoop back over it several times trying to up descriptions. And now I never write in a linear fashion… mostly beginning/ending, then fill in the middle. Still work off first draft.

Don’t follow my example…

I definitely hope more writers jump into this thread, because seeing the different approaches is inspiring. We're all so unique, yet tied together by this single hobby. I think we can all agree on one thing: editing is a pain 😆.

I try to have the whole story in my head before I start. If it seems to work, I write it all out longhand. I let it sit for a bit, then read it through, making additions and corrections as needs be. If it hasn't been rendered a complete mess, I write it out again. After another pause I read it straight through and decide yes or no. If the later, it goes into the fireplace. If the former, I type it out and do a careful edit for case, punctuation, etc. At that point, I read it for content detail. Is there a better, richer word than that? Is this sentence better coming before or after? Should her shoes be red or black? Once everything is perfect or I am too tired of it to care, I usually have a glass of beer for courage, then submit it.

My stories tend to have been clattering around in my head for months or even years before I really start writing. Usually I also have a very rough outline written down or maybe a short partial draft. I’ve got at least twenty stories in something like that state right now.

That said, I like how competitions force me to come up with new ideas, or seriously retool old ones, that jump to the front of the queue and disrupt my grand scheme. Yes, I do have one.

When I do think it’s time to actually start writing a story, how long it takes to finish the first draft varies a lot. Sometimes a few days, especially for a contest, often a couple of months.

Finishing that first draft tends to motivate me to push towards publication, even though I know that 80% of the work is yet to be done. I might be proud of having hit the first-draft milestone, but rarely would I be proud of the result if I cleaned up the technical errors right away and hit Publish without rewriting.

The first thing to go is obvious fat. My first drafts tend to be bloated, often using way too many words to overexplain the nuances of a thought or conversation, often saying the same thing multiple different ways.

Making the sequencing - of thoughts, actions and dialogue - more logical is important. I spend a lot of effort getting the dialogue to where it drives the story and sounds realistic, changing how it’s interspersed with action for optimal flow. I tweaked this time and time again to get it just right in Dick Job, for example.

I often spend a whole read-through just focused on how I’m sharing what’s going on in my head. That’s often as much emotion as it is logical thought, and it’s an important dimension of my stories.

Once I’m mostly satisfied, it’s time to do battle with Grammarly. When the words are my own, no matter how carefully I read, there tend to be errors my eyes simply skip over: the occasional misspelled word or punctuation error, of course. But far more often, there’s an extra or missing word in a sentence that makes me go “Duh!” once the tool points it out. Those latter errors are themselves usually the result of rewriting, which is why it is so important to save that careful Grammarly check - including ignoring 80% of its recommendations - until after the major revisions are done.

Finally, when I’m nearly ready, more read-throughs in Preview mode. Only when I can get all the way through in Preview with no more than a tweak or two do I hit Publish. By this time, I’ve easily done at least ten complete walk-throughs, maybe twenty if it’s a competition, and it was surely more than that for the three that went on to Recommended Reads status. And even after all that, I usually find a thing or two afterward that could be better, but oh well.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
I’ll just delete it if I finish a draft and hate it.... I’ve also deleted (I think) three competition stories after they published. Deleted other regular stories, too.

I've deleted a number of published stories too. Not a big number, but I decided a few of them weren't really up to par - especially the ones for holiday themed competitions. There's been one or two that I've come back to well after the publication and done a significant revision (more than fixing up the odd typo), but that hasn't been too often.

In terms of my writing process, I've fallen into the habit for better or worse of editing as I go. By the time I get to the end of my first draft, it's already in not-too-bad shape. After that, I'll go back over it a couple of times, and judiciously trim the excess, tightening things up. Then I'll do another pass or two for grammar, spelling, style, etc. Usually I'll leave a day or so between for each stage. I usually write in a word doc and copy and paste into LS' submission template. When I do, I'll read it once more - for some reason reading it here seems to reveal things I missed in word, even though it's the same story on the same computer. Anyway, after a last pass for polish, I'll hit the submit button.

Before I add my two cents' worth, I have to state that I consider myself nothing more than a hobbyist story writer (not to the same standard as many above), who had never written anything of interest until January 2021. Then, for fun, I wrote a book, "The Alpha Man in Me". In 2022, I adapted for LS and then began posting it here, simultaneously learning grammar as I went along.

Now, two and three-quarters years later, I have found I can write stories with reasonably good grammar and sometimes “slightly” different plotlines. The one thing I have never had an issue with is coming up with story ideas or, luckily, finishing a story.

Here is my short story thought process…

1. Decide what genre I am writing in.

2. Look for an idea. This could come from something as simple as the cover photo or from an idea I thought of on an earlier date and had in my head or on notes.

3. Handwrite a brief story plot. This is normally nothing more than a couple of paragraphs.

4. Write the first few pages. I prefer to write from 8 am to noon, but it can be all day if words are flowing and making sense!

5. Once the first couple of pages are sensible (I find opening a story often the hardest part), I stop. Then write the closing few paragraphs.

6. I continue writing. Join the story; start with its end. This often means sex scenes are written last. I prefer stories with strong plot lines, characters and twists. Though I do sometimes write them, I am not so much of a fan of over-descriptive sex scenes.

7. It normally takes me around a week to write 5,000 sensible words and then another week to edit and polish a story into something better. This is where I feel a story comes alive. I also believe it is important not to be tempted to publish until it is done, and I mean really completed, which brings me to my final point.

8. Decide if you need to break the story into parts. Is it better to have a story of two 3,000-word parts or one story of 6,000 words? It is an issue that I don’t have the answer to, but I know a lot of readers won’t even look at a story over 3,000 words, which I find a shame.

Point 8 is probably the point I have the greatest issue with. This is because I like spending words on setting the scene. Introduce the reader to the characters and the worlds I create, and then try to make them fall in love with them before sex scenes.

Being an average writer without a huge following, I find it frustrating that points 1 and 8 probably have more influence on how many readers you have looking at your story than the words that are contained within it.

I’m not complaining, but I can back this statement by saying… I wrote one I/F story and gained 168 extra followers from it (at the time, I had around 120). I also received over 200 likes on Part 1 and well over 100 likes on each of the other 3 parts. Even today, I am asked to write more parts, which maybe I will do one day (it is nice to be asked).

Just to round up this long post. I have never binned a story or deleted one. However, I have returned to the earliest novel I posted here and edited it to improve the grammar and add cover photos.   

My process is more like:

• Have idea

• Stew over it

• Start writing, developing characters and plot beyond that original basic idea as I go

• Edit until my eyes bleed

• Submit

It sometimes gets more complex as I experiment with tangents come up as I write and that sort of thing.

And sometimes it stalls at one of the first three stages (once I'm into edit until my eyes bleed, it's generally a finished story).

I have this basic idea about a female survivalist sort living in exile on an island. There have been so many attempts at actually getting that into a story, that I am not sure it will ever come about. But I can't seem to let go of it either.

Quote by wxt55uk

8. Decide if you need to break the story into parts. Is it better to have a story of two 3,000-word parts or one story of 6,000 words? It is an issue that I don’t have the answer to, but I know a lot of readers won’t even look at a story over 3,000 words, which I find a shame.

Readers' preference is clear. One of my three Recommended Reads - something you might expect to attract attention - is 10,000 words, and even though it's been out for two and a half years, it's just barely crested 4k sets of eyeballs. One of my others is 5,000 words, has also been out for quite some time, and hasn't even hit 3k views yet.

My general tendency has become to break stories up if they stretch beyond about 3,000 words. By keeping most of the individual stories of a series largely between 1,500 and 2,500 words, I find a number of my readers liking and commenting on multiple chapters if they like the overall arc.

Just to round up this long post. I have never binned a story or deleted one. However, I have returned to the earliest novel I posted here and edited it to improve the grammar and add cover photos.   

The only time I have canned a story was a Micro contest entry that got rejected for being a movie parody. The title itself was a parody, and the whole thing was unsalvageable.

I’m not complaining, but I can back this statement by saying… I wrote one I/F story and gained 168 extra followers from it (at the time, I had around 120). I also received over 200 likes on Part 1 and well over 100 likes on each of the other 3 parts. Even today, I am asked to write more parts, which maybe I will do one day (it is nice to be asked).

I don't want to judge those who like the very popular I/F genre - after all, fiction is supposed to be cathartic, and may actually keep people from doing irresponsible things, though you never really know. I know this category isn't required for Omnium, but I do have a story idea or two that I may eventually submit in this category. But cousins is far as I can go. Immediately family members, not ever, never ever gonna write it. Thought about a twins story, but I’m not sure I could even do that.

I go through about three to four revisions before I submit a story on here. When I get stuck on a story, I often times put the story on the shelf and return to it at another time. Sadly, it has led me to missing out on various contests while life takes precedence majority of the time. I'm sure I'll revisit my other stories when I finish going through my current editing process, and put together a book with some unreleased short pieces of erotica.