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Post by luciusstorm on Sept 4, 2024 22:15:17 GMT
So, one of the biggest joys and pains of SimLit for me is the serialized nature of the writing. I've been working on my Wyrd Tales series for several years now, building a fairly complex story and world from simple beginnings. Inevitably, there are missteps and contradictions. My current storyline, for instance, is a blatant attempt to explain why a character wasn't present for the events of the first story, when the real-life answer is I hadn't thought of him at the time.
Looking at my blog, I find myself considering going back to the beginning and doing some cleanup. Certainly, there are a host of typos and grammatical mistakes that could stand being cleaned up. From there, of course, the temptation is to start rewriting to fix some of those continuity 'errors' or simply adjust the story.
The question is - should I? Or should I leave well enough alone and let the early stories stand on their own, warts and all?
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EvilBnuuy
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evil
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Post by EvilBnuuy on Sept 4, 2024 22:23:26 GMT
Oh oh oh! I am in similar position as you here in some ways. Personally I say to just leave it as is. From my perspective, I don't think it's any failure on the author's part if certain things aren't referenced purely because the author didn't think of them at the time, and this is much much more of a case and an understandable one with long-term stories like yours. The other risk you run is if you change one thing, you might want to change another thing, and another thing and then get into kind of a loop and then it might set you back on writing the new stuff. I say don't adjust the story at all. As for cleaning up the grammar, I say maybe, because I can see why you'd want to because I look back at all my typos and my keyboard sometimes likes to double-type letters and I just … Blagh, I'm too lazy to do it personally though
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Post by mightysprite on Sept 5, 2024 3:18:42 GMT
luciusstorm Don't worry about it. Have you ever heard of serialized TV?
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caerfinon
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Post by caerfinon on Sept 5, 2024 9:49:12 GMT
luciusstorm with the "new" character a handy device is a flashback episode or Remember the New Guy episode to show the new character actually "WAS" present in the past but behind the scenes and under the radar of characters in the previous chapters.
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Post by luciusstorm on Sept 5, 2024 9:59:18 GMT
mightysprite , I always look to Babylon 5 as the best example of serialized storytelling done obsessively well. That and MASH. caerfinon , I believe I called that View from the Mountain, part 3. Good to know I'm nailing the troupes.
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Post by GlacierSnow on Sept 5, 2024 22:50:56 GMT
Yeah, I agree with the others. I go through a million drafts before chapters are posted, but once they're online I consider myself stuck with them. I'll fix typos or misspellings, but that's it. I do have things in Season One I wish I had done differently, but I don't want to mess with the story as other people have read it. So I'll just make it work.
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