Thoughts on rewriting/working posted fics

Hey guys!!!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about rewriting some of my fics :pencil2: and I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter too!

  1. Do you rewrite/work your fics after they have been posted and how do you feel or think about it?
  2. If you do the above, do you have different versions of the same fic saved? How do you go about organizing it and keeping track of different versions?

Let me start with a little background. I’ve been writing fanfiction for 3 months only and English is not my native language. At first, I did all kinds of mistakes with punctuation and the likes (I still probably do). As soon as I realize I’d been doing something wrong I try to fix it from the next fic. Most of the time I notice a mistake when I reread my fics (which I shamelessly do a lot :rofl: ). It also happens after I have gone on a how to write research spree and on rare occasions, someone has given me constructive pointers in the comments :+1:

For the first point, lately, I have been thinking of going back and fixing my first couple of fics that have some blatant mistakes in them, but I find myself torn about it. On one hand, it feels like the right thing to do and that it could only have positive effects in that readers potentially enjoy the fics more. On the other hand, I quite like being able to see the steady improvement that I have made when I go back and reread my first fics compared to when I read my most recent fics. I also have to admit that once I have finished a fic I am so excited to post and after that I feel rather emotionally done with the creative process for that particular fic… :sweat_smile:

For the second point, if I were to rewrite my fics, I am thinking that, unless any big changes are made to the plot (which likely won’t be the case), I simply edit the already posted fic on Ao3. For me personally, it would feel weird to post it as a new fic and I think it would be confusing for the reader too. But then how do I keep a version of the old fic??? And without a good answer to that, I end up not editing my fics…

If it’s minor edits, I’d just do that in the currently posted work. Punctuation, spelling, and the like.

If you’re changing phrasings or making plot or timeline adjustments (large or small), I’ve occasionally seen writers post a new version of their work and put the older work into either a series of older works, or put the new and old versions in a series.

If you only want to have one version live, you could keep a folder for each fic, with different versions with the date in the title. Though, I’d probably only do that for significant changes. You could also just keep the first posted version and your current rewrite - either in the same document, or the same folder.

As a reader, as long as rewrites are clearly labeled (notes, story title, etc), I don’t find it confusing. It can even be enjoyable to celebrate your growth with you.

I have to say, too, that I didn’t immediately twig that English wasn’t your first language when reading your stories :slightly_smiling_face: