Any writers ever write a story, only to abandon it once you start editing/revising? I'm in a quandry right now about a story that I wrote intending to use it on Lush. For whatever reason, it felt great as I wrote it but now as I re-read and try to edit and revise, it's just not gelling anymore. Debating whether to start over just re-using the few bits that work for me, leave it for a few days or even weeks and then read it again to see if it just needs time, or just abandon it and write off the work I did already. I've already skipped over it and done another story just to keep my juices flowing (creative juices, that is) but that wasn't enough apparently.
I've done that many, many times. Hell, I have 6 stories right this minute waiting to be edited.
But there's something that just doesn't feel right about them and I don't want to go near them until I know I won't feel like scrapping the whole thing.
I've actually redone one of my earlier ones and posted it after I revamped it.
I've also said to hell with it and posted a story anyways and I'm still not happy with it.
I would dearly love to delete it, but something tells me I'll go back at some point and revamp it. (I hope)
Sometimes you can take bits and pieces of a story and incorporate it into another one, so while you may not be happy with it in its current form, maybe you can use the premise or dialogue or sex scene in another story.
Good luck!
You wouldn't believe the size of my story-idea graveyard. I think this is totally normal and healthy for a writer. Granted, a lack of confidence and/or writers block can result in more stories landing on the scrap heap. But, in general, I think most of us have an innate sense for whether a story's been accomplished to our personal satisfaction; and if it hasn't, then abandoning it at least for the time being is the right decision.
It happens to many of us and I'd imagine it happens often. I have scrapped a story for a single reason or many reasons, more often than not it's because it doesn't feel right. I have 4 stories that are demanding my attention but I can't do it just now, the juices aren't flowing so I'm taking a break. Like TDW said, you can take pieces of a story and fuse it with another... it might help in saving a story and making you feel like you haven't been wasting your time. Good Luck with stories.
As all the others have stated. . ."It happens to all of us." It could been that I not feeling the story or I'm not liking the direction it's going; I have scrapped a great many stories over the years. Only thing is; something better has followed in it's place.
Same here. I have a large file of unfinished works. Some are only a few hundred words and some are basically finished. The problem is that they just don't have the quality I desire from my work. Many time I'll go back and re write them. Other times I'll use bits and pieces and discard the rest. Right now I have 2 that are just waiting for me to find the time to finish.
I have a few that I started and never finished. I might revisit a story that I started where the characters have sex on a train. I liked the idea, dropped it, but maybe its time for a second look at it.
I hate double posts..deleted one
got a folder full of them.... some that are an outline or list of thoughts and some that are finished but i cannot bear to put them out there....
I have abandoned stories, some I did eventually (we're talking years, by the way) get back to and finish, some were just either too personal, or too damned crap that I just decided to leave well alone. However, that said, I don't delete them because some of them could provide me with ideas or maybe another way to come at a current story, so in essence, the story may be abandoned, but the idea remains. Sometimes things are just so crap they have to be abandoned, but we can always learn from them, I think.
Yeah I have abandoned one. I was on my third story when I found out the second one was rejected. I thought I had followed allo the suggestions from the first one, but apparantly when I get to writing my exuberance takes over and it does not fit the parameters of good grammar or form or whatever. So I just read the stories now and comment. Nothing worse than taking 30 or 40 minutes to write a story and have it rejected.
Purveyor of Poetry & Porn
I think I've only completely abandoned one story I started...and that was after writing only one paragraph, though I ended up using some of the lines from that one paragraph in another story...I hate to waste anything I write...
Never agonized over a word for that long AFAIK, but sentences and phrases ... oh yeah.
Thanks for all the feedback. It's a bit agonizing because part of me really likes the piece and part of me just doesn't feel it's fully baked yet. There's also a certain amount of "is this really a Lush story?" questioning there. Lots of sex to be sure (3 encounters over a weekend including a first time), but very plotty in places as well though the plotty bits provide the backstory for the characters and why they're having sex. One of the scenes is a bit rushed, too, but that's just a rewrite.
I've abandoned many stories, usually when I get stuck on where they should be going or if I get bored writing them (a good sign that it needs an overhaul somewhere). I'll usually come back to them weeks or months later with a fresh mind or if I get an idea of another direction in can go in. Never think of an abandoned story as wasted time and effort.
Oddly enough, I've picked up one of my other "abandoned" stories and am taking another shot at it.
ive been starting and stopping writing new things for ages now. hense why there hasnt been anything new from me uploaded for a while now!
i end up getting bored, and the way i see it, if the writer is getting bored then the reader will most certainly be yawning reading it...so i start something new and hope the flair takes over.
So far, i have a note book full of unfinished stories right now.
I've got a few abandoned stories: some subjects you need to be in a certain mood to write about, and if the mood aint there: forget it and come back, a few days, weeks, month even and have another go.. I've had a couple of stories rejected, but although disheartened initially, I followed the moderators advice and resubmitted sucessfully. There's one half written story I keep going back to and can't do anything with though.. so far...
I can't say I've abandoned a story but I have abandoned plenty of ideas for stories.
I usually build the full framework for a story in my head before I start typing so I know what the beginning, middle and end will be already. Of course changes get made throughout the story as you get closer to what's happening but, by and large, I know what needs to go where.
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Why not read some stories instead
NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber I don't so much abandon them but put them aside for a while. I've occasionally gone back to them and finished them when I'm inspired or motivated to pick them up again. For example, my 'Fade to Black' story had about a four month 'layover' before I returned to the piece to finish it. And my The Bitches in the Basement series is finally close to completion and will be up on Amazon as a full length novel before the end of the month. There's always stuff in the pipeline and many of them are older semi-finished stories, sketched ideas or temporarily 'abandoned' pieces.
There's probably only one half finished story that I can't imagine ever returning to (the vibe was wrong and it was very early in my erotica writing days).
Typically once the story is complete and in editing, however, it will definitely be published. I don't have any completed stories that I've shelved during the final editing process.
I can go two ways. Sometimes I do as overmykneenow describes - get the whole thing flowing in my head and then write it out. The problem I run into is that what felt brilliant in my head is sometimes hard to get sounding even moderately good on the screen. I also find that these are the stories where I start thinking too much about whos and whys and whatevers and soon I've got a mainstream story with a bit of sex (or the sex gets dropped entirely) instead of erotica. I have a couple non-Lush stories to write that started out as erotica but I decided the plot was more interesting than the sex.
I also sometimes just start writing and let the idea flow out on to the screen. Generally works for shorter, punchier pieces (After The Shower, my latest) that basically just straight-up sex without much plot. Gets the story out faster but often requires more editing and revising later.
Either can lead to a dead end, though I usually end up keeping the basic idea floating around in my head for later use.
