Have you ever felt like picking up a dropped story again?

SsemouyOnan

SsemouyOnan

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Hello first post here, been lurkin' for some time tho.

So recently I kinda felt like picking up an old fanfic I stopped writing a couple years ago again cause I got into the source material again.

But, I didn't know what the heck I was trying to do. It feels like some other guy wrote it lol.

So, made me kinda curious. Any of you here decided "hey, let's write this thing I did some time ago again.". How'd you get back to it?
 
vaurwyn

vaurwyn

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Yes. I dropped a story because I was stuck, and started a new one.
Now I really want to continue my first novel, but I don't have the time to write two stories at the same time, and don't want to abandon the one I am currently working on.
 
Love4NovelGuy

Love4NovelGuy

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SsemouyOnan said:
Hello first post here, been lurkin' for some time tho.

So recently I kinda felt like picking up an old fanfic I stopped writing a couple years ago again cause I got into the source material again.

But, I didn't know what the heck I was trying to do. It feels like some other guy wrote it lol.

So, made me kinda curious. Any of you here decided "hey, let's write this thing I did some time ago again.". How'd you get back to it?
Click to expand...
I’ve tried, but failed. I was unable to keep myself interested long enough to continue posting.

What I usually do with old works is recycle ideas into new ones. Create a fanfic I like even if that means changing everything.
 
ModernGold7ne

ModernGold7ne

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SsemouyOnan said:
Hello first post here, been lurkin' for some time tho.

So recently I kinda felt like picking up an old fanfic I stopped writing a couple years ago again cause I got into the source material again.

But, I didn't know what the heck I was trying to do. It feels like some other guy wrote it lol.

So, made me kinda curious. Any of you here decided "hey, let's write this thing I did some time ago again.". How'd you get back to it?
Click to expand...
The story didn't give me a choice, I wrote myself into a corner, so I reimagined everything.
Anima Aliena is performing far better than a strange soul.
 
D

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SsemouyOnan said:
So, made me kinda curious. Any of you here decided "hey, let's write this thing I did some time ago again.". How'd you get back to it?
Click to expand...
I did a story before, back in 2008, called 'DECK'. It was my first-ever novel, which was actually a manga-turned-LN for me. And well, it took me 10 years to finish one volume of 25 chapters. I said to myself, 'this won't do', so I dropped it, and created the isekai story I'm working on today.

Then, three years and 13 isekai volumes later, I re-read 'DECK' and told myself, 'Hey, this ain't so bad. A few tweaks and I can publish this!'. So, that's what I did. Lesson learned? Some ideas are actually good, though what's strange is, sometimes, while we're doing it, it read so bad you'd like to delete it out of existence. My suggestion is, don't, and shelve it for a while. You might end up being thankful that you did.

Bonus: There's another story I 'shelved' for the meantime...the title is 'The Ballad of School Hallways'. Basically, I meant that to write and deal with my painful experiences in my work as a teacher. But then, when I re-read it--and it coincided with the HoneyFeed contest too--I told myself, how about I put in some interesting fantasy stuff to it, then submit? I won't win anyway, so I just want to try.

Another bonus: Carefully.
 
LilRora

LilRora

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I don't have enough experience yet to talk about it (I started writing seriously like ~1 year ago), but I have a few stories that I dropped at five chapters or so. In hindsight some of them are quite good, though I won't be picking up or even rewriting them anytime soon because my interests lie elsewhere for now.
But in the future, who knows. Maybe I'll dig up some dinosaurs.
 
yurinium

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No, but I had considered rewriting my old story instead.

But after some consideration and rereads I end up not writing them. Mostly due to difference in style and story preferences
 
JDC_OnPaper

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Yeah, I considered picking up some of my dropped novels, of which most were still in the writing board. I read my former novels, say "I could do better, it sucks." Then right a new plot with the same premise and characters, before throwing them down the drain (Again). Basically, I get motivation to rewrite, do the rewrite, read it, Lose interest, drop again— discover it, do some tweaks, drop and repeat.

Either I lack motivation or something just forced me to stop.
 
Temple

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I had a story dropped five years ago that I picked up again. What I did was take the main characters and the story, and rewrote it from the start with all the stuff I wanted to change, all new ideas and experiences I gained the past five years etc. So it depends on you if you just want to continue where you left off or do like a reboot.
SsemouyOnan said:
It feels like some other guy wrote it lol.
Click to expand...
If this is how you feel, maybe you'd want a reboot of sorts.
 
JayDirex

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SsemouyOnan said:
Hello first post here, been lurkin' for some time tho.

So recently I kinda felt like picking up an old fanfic I stopped writing a couple years ago again cause I got into the source material again.

But, I didn't know what the heck I was trying to do. It feels like some other guy wrote it lol.

So, made me kinda curious. Any of you here decided "hey, let's write this thing I did some time ago again.". How'd you get back to it?
Click to expand...
To give a slightly different answer, our characters are our children. So there are a range of low emotions that go through us when we ultimately drop our stories. But in the back of our minds we (most of the time) lie to ourselves that we will comeback. Why? Because we authors are overcome with guilt for giving up on our characters that were so important to us just a month ago......

then another month goes by...new stories start popping in your head.

To answer your question, I've never wanted to drop the few stories I did, but alas, readership dropped off on all of them. That leads to a cycle of "well, if readers don't care, why should I?" and sadly that about ends those stories.

Once readers lose interest (because I failed to entertain them, and that's on me) I also lose interest. And I doubt I'll ever return to a story that (SH) readers lost interest in.
 
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