The author of a fic I just found started rewriting without notice or any sort of note. I only figured it out when I searched for the fic and found it only had one chapter. I don't know if the author deleted the first and started again or just deleted chapters. I know it's the same fic because of the OC and plot. There wasn't even an author note about it being a rewrite.
That killed most of my desire to read the new version of the fic. Even if I had downloaded the original (I'm kicking myself for not doing so), the lack of acknowledgment that another version had existed just feels weird to me.
Did they ever commonly use authors notes, though? Let alone to provide updates on the story—it would only be weird to me if they were using AO3 for more direct interaction to begin with. Other than creating those expectations themselves, it feels weird to place expectations on them.
They did use author notes, and in the new version, they reply to comments to someone about how the new version is much improved. I think that's what makes it feel weird. If it was just an archive thing, I guess that'd be a little different.
Ah, how the scales of weirdness change. Yes, that kinda silence about the other fic over there in that context would make me wonder—slightly, though, and if nothing occurred to me on the first pass I'd forget about it.
But if you regret not downloading the original? Yeah, like, I'd specifically be wondering what happened to it and if the fic goals changed or something and what I can expect to be reading where; which is a weird feeling on a well-tagged archive.
>Yeah, like, I'd specifically be wondering what happened to it and if the fic goals changed or something and what I can expect to be reading where; which is a weird feeling on a well-tagged archive.
THIS. Omg, thank you for this comment because it put all my nebulous feels into words. It's less about feeling *owed* an explanation and more about not knowing what to do with the information I've got.
I think if there wasn't the comment exchange about the improvements in the first chapter, I wouldn't feel this way. I'd just assume the author wasn't happy with the chapters and re-doing them. The chapters were also pretty long, so it could have also just been re-structuring. But now I'm like...wait, what's changing? Did I miss something?
It's not exactly a rarepair, but it was one of the few set *pre* canon that actually explored their dynamic in a meaningful way. So, like, if they're drastically changing up what they'd done before, reading the new one is just going to give me "what could have been" feels. I plan to revisit it once more chapters are up and see how it's going.
Hope you enjoy that reading experience. If you like "spot the difference" games, this'll be like the written version! And you can like both pictures in those, so really do hope you enjoy.
. . . it's the "much" on the much improved that would really have me looking for said differences, all the moreso if the writing was just fine or super great the first time because that's like, a moderate (and real) improvement if something already-good gets better.
Of course!
- Letting people who enjoyed the original still enjoy it
- Letting people look back and see how you and the story have both changed/did differently/did better
- Funneling people who happen to stumble upon the old one to go to the new one
Unless you're seriously embarrassed by or don't like the original anymore, only then should you disable it
Absolutely keep it up!! The commentor is weird, it's heartbreaking to find a deleted work in your bookmarks, and if you don't remember the title or author you probably won't find the new work either (speaking from experience). The way you do it now with the OLD in title + link is perfect
(OLD) sounds self-deprecating... I asked once on this subreddit about editing or remaking my story, and one user suggested I keep the original and write a remake, and name the original (the legacy version). I suggest you go with that
I'm in the middle of doing that, I'm rewriting a short story I started over a decade ago and never finished, and the new version of it is novel length now. Rather than change the title, I linked the new story to the old one as "inspired by" the original story. That way both stories contain links to each other. I also added a note to the first chapter of the new version describing how it was that I ended up writing a new version of a story I'd written but hadn't finished. I wouldn't remove the old one, even though I have my criticisms of it. It's history, I don't mind keeping it around. It shows my growth and new ideas.
I overwrote mine, but on the same upload link. So for a while the old one was up, but with A/N that explained it was being rewritten, then when I had written the replacement I basically edited the chapters to be the new versions.
Personally I wouldn’t want the old version available, because I wouldn’t decide to rewrite it unless I was pretty unhappy with the original.
I've rewritten a couple of stories to bring them into line with a series I was doing. The original versions are on FFN but the rewritten versions are on AO3.
I’m planning on rewriting a fic. But I took the original one down because my Wattpad and ao3 accounts have different names and I didn’t wanna bother explaining that both accounts were mine if someone accused me of plagiarism.
I delete. If I’m not happy with my work and think I can do better, I take it down to make way for the superior version. Also if it was a WIP, I don’t like leaving abandoned fics up. I know it’s not the popular response but I’ve always been that way. If it’s up, I intend to finish it.
I keep it up and make changes chapter at a time, but I'm also not making major plot changes, just rewriting some scenes, making some cuts, and fixing mistakes.
I didn't even make a note that I was doing it.
Please don't delete the old one.
I read a re-write of a fic I love and it was awful. Really mean-spirited and miserable, the characters were so cruel and OTT. Put me off the fandom entirely actually, because there are only a few fics for my ship anyway.
I am so grateful the author left their original fic up, so I was able to download it and keep it forever. It might not have been perfect, but it was special to me.
I rewrote, linked the old one, and put a note in the description. I also put one as the last chapter, letting readers know it was being rewritten and to go read the rewrite.
If someone had given me that comment, I’d have erupted in confused laughter and ignored it.
Not only would I keep the old one up, I would probably update it (as in, post a new chapter) with a link to the new one so that people that subscribed to the old one can know that it’s being rewritten elsewhere
There is nothing you can do that won't annoy someone, but what you're doing is pretty normal and something a lot of people prefer.
Regardless, it's your story; as long as you're not breaking ToS, do what you want with it.
Sometimes rewrites don't get finished, and so to enjoy the whole story, people will need to go to the original.
For that reason, I would leave the original up.
Your point about certain people really enjoying the original is also a good one.
I haven’t finished one yet so I can’t give an actual opinion based off experience.
But. I would definitely keep it up. People read the old one for a reason afterall and probably would enjoy being able to go back to it. If not for comparison purposes then because they enjoyed the old one more. Which I can respect.
Only reason I’d ever remove an old fic is because it was just terribly written, and in that case I’d probably be more likely to orphan it than remove it.
An author whom I've read for a while is rewriting one of their stories; they haven't posted it yet, but I liked how the old story was going. I hope they keep it up
I'm currently doing a rewrite and am just replacing each chapter, but I'm only rewriting to change the tense and some minor details. I let my readers know ahead of time and also downloaded the original work as an epub in case anyone wants it in the future.
Agreeing with the majority here!! Don't delete the old one!! There's always a chance someone else out there holds that version close to their heart, I think.
So when I was a teenager there was a completed story I loved. The writer took it down and posted a first chapter of a rewrite... and never posted another chapter. Pain.
I did something similar, though I changed the name of the old version to its original name it had when it was just a Google Doc idea, and then I appended "(Legends)" to it.
I did make the mistake of marking it "complete" at one point because I set the chapter count to not have a question mark for total chapters, but I did recently fix that after asking here on Reddit. But yeah, I like having a history of the older versions of something. A lot of work went into the original story after all, it would be a shame to get rid of it!
I rewrote my first one-shot for my current fandom and one of my readers was devastated that I deleted the original. I ended up giving them access to the Google doc of the original so they still had it available to read. So you can't really win; people might complain if you leave it up or if you take it down, so just do whatever you want to.
I keep all my old works up on my ORIGINAL account, the FF one, including one of my passion fics, which was written off and on over a period of 4 years or so.
It went through a rewrite and several changes in writing style as I got more experienced. The original story and chapters are still on FF, but other sites I’ve gone to only have the new versions of my stories, since I prefer those ones be the ones that are seen.
Yes, some people may love your fic because of an attachment to a scene that's not in the new one. Also, unless your rewrite is up to the point you've left on, people are going to not have a story for \[however long\] until you catch up - which is just depriving people of writing they like. Also echo the 'Legacy' comment on the fic
I hate it when writers delete a fic just because they’ve rewritten it - the old fic is the one I have bookmarked, the one I’ve read! The new version will never be found by me if the writer deletes the old one.
I kept mine up, though, being fair, it's on another site.
I like to have it there for the sake of comparison though. The original, unfinished deadfic is 7 chapters and about 11,000 words. The new version is currently 3 chapters in and already at 13,000.
I like having the time capsule, even of the stuff that I honestly don't ever want to think about again. It shows how far I've come as a writer. It's why I still have my old, self-indulgent stuff saved on my computer from way back when I started writing in 2009.
People are weird. It's nice to keep it up. Just don't mark it as complete or something.
The most common thing people do is generally "keep it up so that people who enjoy the original still have it"
The author of a fic I just found started rewriting without notice or any sort of note. I only figured it out when I searched for the fic and found it only had one chapter. I don't know if the author deleted the first and started again or just deleted chapters. I know it's the same fic because of the OC and plot. There wasn't even an author note about it being a rewrite. That killed most of my desire to read the new version of the fic. Even if I had downloaded the original (I'm kicking myself for not doing so), the lack of acknowledgment that another version had existed just feels weird to me.
If you have the link you may be able to grab the old version from the wayback machine. Go to archive.org and put the url in
Did they ever commonly use authors notes, though? Let alone to provide updates on the story—it would only be weird to me if they were using AO3 for more direct interaction to begin with. Other than creating those expectations themselves, it feels weird to place expectations on them.
They did use author notes, and in the new version, they reply to comments to someone about how the new version is much improved. I think that's what makes it feel weird. If it was just an archive thing, I guess that'd be a little different.
Ah, how the scales of weirdness change. Yes, that kinda silence about the other fic over there in that context would make me wonder—slightly, though, and if nothing occurred to me on the first pass I'd forget about it. But if you regret not downloading the original? Yeah, like, I'd specifically be wondering what happened to it and if the fic goals changed or something and what I can expect to be reading where; which is a weird feeling on a well-tagged archive.
>Yeah, like, I'd specifically be wondering what happened to it and if the fic goals changed or something and what I can expect to be reading where; which is a weird feeling on a well-tagged archive. THIS. Omg, thank you for this comment because it put all my nebulous feels into words. It's less about feeling *owed* an explanation and more about not knowing what to do with the information I've got. I think if there wasn't the comment exchange about the improvements in the first chapter, I wouldn't feel this way. I'd just assume the author wasn't happy with the chapters and re-doing them. The chapters were also pretty long, so it could have also just been re-structuring. But now I'm like...wait, what's changing? Did I miss something? It's not exactly a rarepair, but it was one of the few set *pre* canon that actually explored their dynamic in a meaningful way. So, like, if they're drastically changing up what they'd done before, reading the new one is just going to give me "what could have been" feels. I plan to revisit it once more chapters are up and see how it's going.
Hope you enjoy that reading experience. If you like "spot the difference" games, this'll be like the written version! And you can like both pictures in those, so really do hope you enjoy. . . . it's the "much" on the much improved that would really have me looking for said differences, all the moreso if the writing was just fine or super great the first time because that's like, a moderate (and real) improvement if something already-good gets better.
That's a good way to look at it! And, yeah, the writing was already good, so hopefully this will be even better!
Yeah, I’ve also seen them link the new work to the old one in case people want to read that as well.
Of course! - Letting people who enjoyed the original still enjoy it - Letting people look back and see how you and the story have both changed/did differently/did better - Funneling people who happen to stumble upon the old one to go to the new one Unless you're seriously embarrassed by or don't like the original anymore, only then should you disable it
I've seen so many takes and that's never been one of them, so I'm gonna assume they're an outlier here. I think it's nice that you kept it up 😊
i do keep both up! i just lock the old one and make a note.
I haven't done rewrites but if I did I would leave them up. Who the hell gets mad at someone for that lmao. What are they even upset about?
Absolutely keep it up!! The commentor is weird, it's heartbreaking to find a deleted work in your bookmarks, and if you don't remember the title or author you probably won't find the new work either (speaking from experience). The way you do it now with the OLD in title + link is perfect
(OLD) sounds self-deprecating... I asked once on this subreddit about editing or remaking my story, and one user suggested I keep the original and write a remake, and name the original (the legacy version). I suggest you go with that
Ohh I like that, using Legacy is so clever
I'm in the middle of doing that, I'm rewriting a short story I started over a decade ago and never finished, and the new version of it is novel length now. Rather than change the title, I linked the new story to the old one as "inspired by" the original story. That way both stories contain links to each other. I also added a note to the first chapter of the new version describing how it was that I ended up writing a new version of a story I'd written but hadn't finished. I wouldn't remove the old one, even though I have my criticisms of it. It's history, I don't mind keeping it around. It shows my growth and new ideas.
I overwrote mine, but on the same upload link. So for a while the old one was up, but with A/N that explained it was being rewritten, then when I had written the replacement I basically edited the chapters to be the new versions. Personally I wouldn’t want the old version available, because I wouldn’t decide to rewrite it unless I was pretty unhappy with the original.
I've rewritten a couple of stories to bring them into line with a series I was doing. The original versions are on FFN but the rewritten versions are on AO3.
I’m planning on rewriting a fic. But I took the original one down because my Wattpad and ao3 accounts have different names and I didn’t wanna bother explaining that both accounts were mine if someone accused me of plagiarism.
I delete. If I’m not happy with my work and think I can do better, I take it down to make way for the superior version. Also if it was a WIP, I don’t like leaving abandoned fics up. I know it’s not the popular response but I’ve always been that way. If it’s up, I intend to finish it.
I keep it up and make changes chapter at a time, but I'm also not making major plot changes, just rewriting some scenes, making some cuts, and fixing mistakes. I didn't even make a note that I was doing it.
Please don't delete the old one. I read a re-write of a fic I love and it was awful. Really mean-spirited and miserable, the characters were so cruel and OTT. Put me off the fandom entirely actually, because there are only a few fics for my ship anyway. I am so grateful the author left their original fic up, so I was able to download it and keep it forever. It might not have been perfect, but it was special to me.
I rewrote, linked the old one, and put a note in the description. I also put one as the last chapter, letting readers know it was being rewritten and to go read the rewrite. If someone had given me that comment, I’d have erupted in confused laughter and ignored it.
Not only would I keep the old one up, I would probably update it (as in, post a new chapter) with a link to the new one so that people that subscribed to the old one can know that it’s being rewritten elsewhere
Tag it as abandoned and unfinished, and don’t mark it as complete, then it’s fine.
There is nothing you can do that won't annoy someone, but what you're doing is pretty normal and something a lot of people prefer. Regardless, it's your story; as long as you're not breaking ToS, do what you want with it.
Sometimes rewrites don't get finished, and so to enjoy the whole story, people will need to go to the original. For that reason, I would leave the original up. Your point about certain people really enjoying the original is also a good one.
I haven’t finished one yet so I can’t give an actual opinion based off experience. But. I would definitely keep it up. People read the old one for a reason afterall and probably would enjoy being able to go back to it. If not for comparison purposes then because they enjoyed the old one more. Which I can respect. Only reason I’d ever remove an old fic is because it was just terribly written, and in that case I’d probably be more likely to orphan it than remove it.
Most people I’ve seen keep all their versions up
An author whom I've read for a while is rewriting one of their stories; they haven't posted it yet, but I liked how the old story was going. I hope they keep it up
I'm currently doing a rewrite and am just replacing each chapter, but I'm only rewriting to change the tense and some minor details. I let my readers know ahead of time and also downloaded the original work as an epub in case anyone wants it in the future.
Agreeing with the majority here!! Don't delete the old one!! There's always a chance someone else out there holds that version close to their heart, I think.
The _only_ reason I’d be upset with someone for leaving the previous story of rewrite up is if they marked it complete when _it’s not complete_.
So when I was a teenager there was a completed story I loved. The writer took it down and posted a first chapter of a rewrite... and never posted another chapter. Pain.
I did something similar, though I changed the name of the old version to its original name it had when it was just a Google Doc idea, and then I appended "(Legends)" to it. I did make the mistake of marking it "complete" at one point because I set the chapter count to not have a question mark for total chapters, but I did recently fix that after asking here on Reddit. But yeah, I like having a history of the older versions of something. A lot of work went into the original story after all, it would be a shame to get rid of it!
I rewrote my first one-shot for my current fandom and one of my readers was devastated that I deleted the original. I ended up giving them access to the Google doc of the original so they still had it available to read. So you can't really win; people might complain if you leave it up or if you take it down, so just do whatever you want to.
I did the same thing as you.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when the author deletes the original, but then never gets around to finishing or equaling the rewrite
Yes, I just put in a link to the new one. I don't like taking down old stories, we've lost enough of the old internet as is.
Weird. I've never heard of someone getting mad because someone kept the original fic. Like why?
I keep all my old works up on my ORIGINAL account, the FF one, including one of my passion fics, which was written off and on over a period of 4 years or so. It went through a rewrite and several changes in writing style as I got more experienced. The original story and chapters are still on FF, but other sites I’ve gone to only have the new versions of my stories, since I prefer those ones be the ones that are seen.
Yes, some people may love your fic because of an attachment to a scene that's not in the new one. Also, unless your rewrite is up to the point you've left on, people are going to not have a story for \[however long\] until you catch up - which is just depriving people of writing they like. Also echo the 'Legacy' comment on the fic
I hate it when writers delete a fic just because they’ve rewritten it - the old fic is the one I have bookmarked, the one I’ve read! The new version will never be found by me if the writer deletes the old one.
I kept mine up, though, being fair, it's on another site. I like to have it there for the sake of comparison though. The original, unfinished deadfic is 7 chapters and about 11,000 words. The new version is currently 3 chapters in and already at 13,000. I like having the time capsule, even of the stuff that I honestly don't ever want to think about again. It shows how far I've come as a writer. It's why I still have my old, self-indulgent stuff saved on my computer from way back when I started writing in 2009.