jcd1013: (Write-the redbook by fileg)
[personal profile] jcd1013
Rereading your own stories is sometimes a risky endeavor.

After being nominated at the Literati Fanfiction Awards, (waves gratefully to very sweet person), I decided to reread my "What A Wonderful World." I am truly vainly proud of that story, mostly because I swear someone else wrote it--I must have been channeling a spirit or something. I just remember that I was especially giddy because a particular crush seemed to be going right at that time (of course, it fizzled not long afterwards), but seriously, I don't recognize that brand of Romantic!Me.

Anyway, I decided to go through the rest of my stories, especially LNB, just to make sure that I didn't have any glaring errors or major inconsistencies. Yeah, bad idea. My early Jess is laughable in his conversation... sometimes I get him, and then other times, who was I writing, an English professor? [livejournal.com profile] kimlockt told me that he needed some work--and I agreed at the time and changed a few things, but I just hadn't seen until now how much!

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized... the first four chapters are really just an introduction to the story. Compared to my later chapters, they're short, only about 4 pages each and not that much important stuff happens.

So I've been editing all afternoon. I combined chapter 1 and 3, and will be doing the same for 2 and 4. And Jess is getting a trim. All of the "really" and "so" that I use are going bye-bye, as well as most of the first words of every sentence.

But now, I'm concerned that I'm going to have to repost the whole thing at ff.net. Combining like that will make my story two chapters shorter and it'll mess up my reviews (I hit 50! Woohoo!!) and I remember reading something that if you try to delete the last chapter, it wipes away your whole story.

But it needs the changes so badly. I can't even think about continuing it until I get this fixed. Grrr.

Any advice?

(no subject)

Date: 2004-01-24 09:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jcd1013.livejournal.com
I know, I know, I foolishly took the bullet. I thought it'd be a good thing, remind myself of where I'd been, get ideas of where I'm going. And boy, it was a mistake. At least, I have very concrete ideas of how to finish the fic--I don't think it has messed up my muse in the long term. Wouldn't that be laughable. Right, muse? Muse? Muse?

Yeah, I have to change it. It'll just grate on me until I do. It flows so much better now and I'm happy(ier) with it. I had just hoped to find a way to (continuing with all of the silly metaphor) have my cake and eat it too (okay, that one was just dumb).

Now, what can I say to help you resuscitate your inspiration for Over Time?

And ff.net? (sticks tongue out) Bleh. I spend more time formatting my chapter, so that the stupid program will actually read my whole document and not chop it into bits, than I do writing!
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