Changing the story when you’ve already written and published it is risky. I know. I’ve done it. But it is the question of the month, and I couldn’t think of much else to write about today, so …

This is my Insecure Writers Support Group post, in which we share our successes and failures as writers, our insecurities, in fact. Anyone can join in, just sign up at the IWSG Sign-up page, write a blog post on the first Wednesday of the month, and go back to that sign up page to link with everyone else–or a goodly sample. Our host is Alex J Cavanaugh, and cohosting this month are:

Joylene Nowell Butler, Louise Barbour, and Tyrean Martinson! 

Changing the Story

Is there a story or book you’ve written you want to/wish you could go back and change?

IWSG Question Feb 25

Thinking about this, the obvious ones are the first of each of my series, which I did in fact go back and change. The Princelings of the East got a Second Edition, and I just uploaded the changed file, but marked it as second edition, and made sure it said so in the blurb, as well.

It suffered from being my first book. The original was written by a grown up (allegedly), with the sort of newbie errors you can tell a mile off. The style was very ‘old-fashioned’. I liked it, but I had also chickened out of writing lots of dialogue about reasons for doing things. I changed that description into lively scenes between characters and it worked much much better. Then I dropped the first two chapters and started with some action.

The first of the Viridian series, despite lots of great beta comments, just didn’t work when it got into the world. It was too slow. I withdrew this from sale, cut the first two chapters, and changed it around a bit, too. I’m still nervous about it, but reading it again recently, it’s absolutely fine, a first in series which should encourage follow-ons.

Why they don’t get a lot of follow-ons I don’t know. I still think all the other books in both series are better!

I also changed some of my shorter stories. But then, having included them in the BookElves books, I could rewrite them for the Messenger Misadventures, with not too much risk of cross-overs. I’m not happy with the order of them, but what’s done is done. As with most creative activity, there are always things you see later and know you could improve.

I’m looking forward to a time when I get it right first time (after editing, of course.). One thing I do these days is cut the first chapter before it gets to the beta readers… so if you’d like to beta read the next one (the early adventures of Big Pete and the Swede, my scifi series heroes), just let me know.

A to Z Challenge

I said I wasn’t going to do this again, and then someone asked last month about it, and it got me thinking. I think if I do it, I’ll do illustrations, either from the books, or something specifically for the letter. This month my Art Group is doing a Sketching Challenge, so I’ve been mapping out where the gaps will be in the A to Z and hoping to fill in from the prompts we’re given. That means I probably won’t post those sketches here this month, as I thought I might.

And now I go down another rabbit hole to think of pictures for A to Z I have already….

Have a good month.

If you are on Bluesky, so am I. I’d love to see you there. Click the blue heart at the top of this page. Use tags booksky, authorsky, and your favourite genre (probably) to find things you like. IWSG is on there, and so is the A2Z Challenge. And J Lenni Dorner 🙂

How did you answer today’s question?

Changing the Story #IWSG #authorsky
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11 thoughts on “Changing the Story #IWSG #authorsky

  • 5 February, 2025 at 10:31 am
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    Hi Jemima,

    Spend the rest of my life revising, rewriting ? Might not be a bad idea.
    Bluesky ? Will ask IT – day job, so far better at all tech than I am.
    Still no signal where we live, and laughable broadband.
    -thanks to concerns about ‘ visual impact’ – yet romance and travel so often feature a fairly conspicuous mast, – meaning the one in Paris.

    This week, WordPress isn’t helping – locking me out half the time,
    and keeps telling me I’m somebody else, with a totally different blog

    Reply
    • 5 February, 2025 at 4:52 pm
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      I had that once or twice this week. Seems to have settled down again. Mind you, my Mac froze yesterday and had to reboot twice. Cooked dinner, ate it, and watched a programme till it came back again. Seems to be behaving today. I did delete 400 Mb of photos, though! That helped.

      Reply
  • 5 February, 2025 at 11:55 am
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    I have an old manuscript–my first–I want to fix too. I’m hoping to get to it after I finish revising my current one.

    I hope you’ll comment on my blog and tell me how to get the Bluesky gadget. I just joined and followed you. The link to mine is on my blog on the sidebar till I can get the gadget.

    Reply
    • 5 February, 2025 at 4:58 pm
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      I’m just doing Bluesky on my browser. The key is the Blueskysocial or bsky.app. I did find it confusing at first, but I jumped around and made lots of mistakes!

      By the gadget do you mean the widget for your blog? I had to dump my old plug-in as it didn’t have Bluesky. I think the one in Jetpack for contacts/social does. I’ll go and check later (I’m not logged in at present!)

      Reply
  • 5 February, 2025 at 12:32 pm
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    I did get to go back and change some things in my first book, minor stuff, many years ago. The others I am happy with though.

    Reply
  • 5 February, 2025 at 4:11 pm
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    Whew! Good thing I saw your post, because I had totally failed to realized that this was IWSG day (as my friends in most time zones will have already figured out)! I haven’t done a rewrite on a published work, but have a little itch to do so. Your comments make me realize that I could probably get away without doing a new cover, though it would have to be a new edition. Our very first books are always probably going to read a bit like first books–maybe we’d have been cured of that by a trad contract and a real editor, maybe not. Experience is the real key.

    Reply
    • 5 February, 2025 at 5:04 pm
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      The trouble with our first books is that they are fresh. I don’t think I could capture the same innocence of my heroes the Princelings if I rewrote it from scratch. And I think that might be better than any more edits. If I run out of things I want to do (as opposed to the things I should be doing) maybe I’ll give it a go, just to hang out with the boys again. ❤️

      Reply
  • 5 February, 2025 at 5:30 pm
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    I’ve wanted to go back and improve the writing in my first two books, but I can;t find the time!

    Reply
  • 6 February, 2025 at 12:44 am
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    Hello Jemima: I think I’m getting too old to do anything twice, unless it improves my mobility. Thanks for your wisdom. Blessings 🙂

    Reply
    • 6 February, 2025 at 12:27 pm
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      I particularly like the new research which recommends micro-exercise for older people. Five minutes is plenty!
      I think I’m finding the idea of improving older work easier than inventing new things. And then another idea gets sparked, and away we go!

      Reply

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