I haven't published a story here (yet), but have written non-erotica and lots of recorded and published songs.
Leonard Cohen was famous for repeatedly re-writing some of his songs, changing a line here, a word there, and adding a new verse. I have thought of re-doing some of my earlier work which was good in spirit but poorer in craft.
Do any authors here rewrite their work after an initial publishing? What are the pros and cons?
My story "Voice of Ice", which is posted on our sister site Stories Space. I dashed off the original on a snow day off from work back in the early nineties, had a revised (but not to my satisfaction) version published by a friend in a webzine he was co-editing, and finally did a major overhaul this winter and posted that version to Stories Space.
Pros? The original was an early work of mine and I've matured as a writer. Also, my friend injected some of his writing quirks into the edit and I got to find and remove those to put it back in my voice.
Cons? Not many in my case. Since the original wasn't widely seen outside the community that followed the webzine, it was effectively a new publication so I didn't have to sell people on it being better than the old version or anything. Obviously, if it was something I had published and sold, convincing fans of the original to re-buy it becomes an issue (as with Stephen King's "director's cut" of The Stand) but if it's on a site like Lush, you can just publicize it and even use the revision to re-interest people in the story. I suppose the fact that I was spending time revisiting old material instead of producing new could be seen as a con, but if the old material is good and worthy of a revisit, that's not a huge issue.
Some of my stories here are revised from older ideas but those earlier versions were never published so don't quite fit what you are looking for.
One con from a Lush standpoint: the story will have to be re-verified. Not usually a problem but older stories from times before mods were as thorough as they are now sometimes need a re-edit and re-proofreading along with any other changes (but it sounds like you'd be doing this anyhow). More rarely, old stories sometimes have rules violations that weren't rules violations at the time or that slipped through the cracks.
I don't usually do it after publishing. However, I do have finished stories that I didn't love. I never did anything with them. Sometimes I'll pull one out and see if, like you, the idea was good but the execution was poor.
The pros? I think, in this case, time away from the story and improved writing ability is a good reason to revisit something.
The cons? You can get hung up on a story for too long trying to "perfect" it. I helped a man with a novel he was writing. When we lost contact, he'd been writing and re-writing that damn thing for nearly ten years. He had a draft when we met. Seven years later, he was still editing.
Don't be that writer.
I pretty much agree with what Burquette has said. Generally, I feel that once a story is online, then that's it. I've done the best I can with it, and once I've launched it into the world, it's up to it to sink or swim.
Almost the only exception is my first published Lush story (nearly 6 years ago), which I went back to in 2015 and rewrote quite a lot of. It's improved the style, I think, and I'm glad I did it.
The only other changes I've made to some older stories is to improve the punctuation. Lush wasn't always as strict as it now is, and some of my earlier stuff is/was a bit sloppy, which bothers me now.
Whenever I'm tempted to spend some time rewriting an old piece, I'm reminded of the composer Anton Bruckner, who spend so much time in older life revising his early symphonies that he died before he had time to write any new ones (more or less).
22 February 2024 - How about a quick plug for one of my filthiest recent stories? It's all in the title - Naked Pool Party Swingers | Lush Stories Please read, comment and maybe give it a ❤️ - or even a⭐ if you really enjoy it! Thank you! Annie xxx
I cleaned up a lot of my older stories years ago. Most all of my early stuff received another quick editing pass before I posted it here as well.
If there's a severe logic or continuity error in something, I'll fix it. During that process, I'll give it another full editing pass, possibly cleaning up some phrasing or other little quirks.
It's nothing I do very often, because everything I post nowadays has already been through multiple passes of editing. That doesn't mean it's perfect, but it does mean that the kind of mistakes which make me consider fixing them aren't there.
I've only written one thing so far, just recently for the Passion Competition.
I know I do have trouble with English, relating to sentence structure, and mainly the use of American slang terms.
There are so many words that are spelled the same, but mean different things depending on who you are talking to from the US.
I've looked at my Story Poem, and I know it is unique in it's concept, as everyone tells me, but I also realize that it has many errors I think.
I'm not sure if I know enough to correct them properly, or if I will even bother.
I'm not really a very good writer I know, and may not write anything else anyway.
I am very glad so many liked it though, and very thankful for that at least...smile
After stories have been published, the only changes I go back and make are corrections in usage. I'm currently writing a historical story for StoriesSpace, but I may re-write it with more developed erotic passages for Lush.
I am constantly tinkering, and always rewrite at least once, usually more, after they've been posted (sorry mods). The "Open" stories were an extreme example, because I had to make the details match up (or purposely not match up) as I wrote them. Between the 3 stories, I probably did 10 rewrites.
I do find that after awhile stories kind of "harden," you change a sentence and then realize that changes another sentence, which in turn changes another sentence. You are too far away from it to work on it. I generally don't touch them after that.
Thank you all for the intelligent and measured responses. Apparently it is pretty uncommon, however there are notable authors that have done so.
Examples:
Ulysses - Joyce
Childhood's End - Clark
The Hobbit - Tolkien (to align with the Lord of the Rings trilogy)
Roderick Hudson - James (never read this. I may need to look it up)
The Stand - King (haven't read it and don't intend to. Appologies for King fans)
It is clear that these are not common. In songwriting, there are often multiple versions out there with different feel, different arrangements, etc...
Often this is done when an artist is tired of turing a song night after night. But sometimes, the song is almost completely rewritten because the artist believes in the song, but his or her craft has improved.
I was tempted to re-write a couple of old non-erotic short stories I wrote right after college. I could do so much better now.
Thank you all for you thoughts and support. I am in awe.
In the horror genre, I know Dean R Koontz significantly re-wrote a fairly mediocre effort called Demon Seed.
F Paul Wilson wrote a novel called "Nightworld," which closed a series of novels. After he finished it, he expanded the world that those novels were set in, and wrote a lot more connected books, and then he re-wrote "Nightworld" significantly, for continuity.
I tend to agree w Saucy. I look back at some of my earlier stuff and think it would be so easy to make better now, but it's nice to keep it as a sort of record of improvement.
There are, however, a couple of stories I'm tempted to make better. One was the one I asked about a few days ago, and a few people (rengnadkcin among them) gave me very helpful critiques. I have plans to tinker with it and fix some of its flaws, as it's one I am quite invested in for various reasons.
There's another story I wrote that's godawful. I'd just delete it if it weren't for the fact that it's chapter one of a series in which I'm quite proud of chapters 2 and 3. It's on my to-do list to revamp that one mightily.
(The Stand, for what it's worth, seems to me to fit into King's MO of starting off great and then not knowing where he was going.)
I dont usually go back after they have been published but I do a lot of re-writing before it is. The story can be quite different when published to when it was conceived.
There has been such a progression in my writing since my early work, that I would love to rework my first stories. However, they remind me of my beginnings, so I let them be. I think all active authors improve and hone their skills through practice.
No...maybe I just lack the time and patience, but if I'm not loving a story, it languishes in my Google Drive. Some have eventually turned into something useful, but a lot more have wandered off into the woods to be eaten by bears.
As Ms. B pointed out, you can get so tied up in re-writes that it because a hot mess. Throw it away, move on.
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
Deleting my account may have been foolish (and expensive) but it gave me the opportunity to review several of my stories — I also had a lot of help from Elizabeth with this — before I reposted them. I have of necessity had to rewrite stories that I originally published on Lush to make them suitable for StoriesSpace — most notably the Bawdy Tales Series. There are also still stories sitting on my OneDrive which were written for a particular person who is no longer a member which I might take another look at one day.
Although my prose writing style has not changed greatly over the five years that I have been writing for Lush, I have been constantly developing and improving my poetic style and I have only just, after twelve years of experiment and study, found a distinctive voice. Writing poetry is much more like writing music than writing prose, and historically speaking, revision of earlier works by classical (more properly Romantic) composers is quite common, although some — such as Bruckner — could never stop,
Finally there are stories by other writers here — I mention no names — that would benefit from revision, in many cases just to correct spelling and grammar, but in others to improve their flow and dialogue.
I've never rewritten a story after publishing. The thing's out there. People have read it. Any edits should be made while it's ALL STILL MINE. As soon as it reaches the eyes of a reader, it's done. Set in stone. I don't really know why. I don't want to change the meaning/impression/emotions someone has gotten out of it. Besides, the story represents the author I was when I posted it. It's like a line on a CV, if that makes sense. I can make small spelling/punctuation corrections but not much more.
I tinker. If I reread a story and find something could be improved, I'll make the change. I feel like my older stories read more smoothly because of it. Or maybe it's just in my head. Either way, I'm super OCD with my stories and will likely never be able to withstand the temptation to tinker.
Check out my latest - a humorous collaboration with trinket and a Recommended Read
My non-erotica is very abbreviated and dialogue rich with little description. I am finding that doesn't easily work with erotica (at least not for me). Subsequently, I am having to develop new "muscles" in descriptive prose. That made me consider going back to some older non-erotica that might be enhanced by better description.
I think, I'll let the older ones stand as is for now.
Seeker, I supect it is a matter of habit. When I was acting, I worked with the playwrights and directors. At least for stage plays, the dialogue has to convey and carry the story. The craft of people changing through dialogue is an interesting one and translates well to short story fiction (my favorite to write).
I subscribe to the thought that in a "story," something or someone must have changed. Erotica throws that on its head. And while that can be true in erotica, itneed not be. It stretches a whole series of muscles for my writing. I have a friend on here who has helped me out considerably. I am envious of you all - your talent, your sharing, and your friendliness.
I would be rubbish at novels (though I love to read them).
I wasn't a versatile actor at all. I was pretty good at some types of roles (straight man in comedy, bad guys, etc.) but got type cast as good guys (due to a boyish face and blonde hair) which I had no feel for. If I felt the role, I was good, if not... I really disliked the rampant egos, backstabbing, etc. of the acting community. Touring a show really sucks. Glad to have done it. Would never do it again.
I mostly enjoyed the playwriting process. I was fortunate to work with some pretty talented people.
No, not really. I've deleted the one's that were unbearably bad. I simply don't have the time to keep re-working them. 
