Hello everyone, Basically what is your etiquette ?When you return to a chapter, or even a whole story after a long time, and feel really strongly that you should redo it from the ground up, what do you do? Do you scrub the old content and replace it with the new? If you're rewriting a whole story do you overwrite the old "introduction" completely and go from there? Maybe you copy your old chapters into a new thread so old readers who may have liked them can still find them. I'm not sure how I feel about removing old content or even moving it when it has already received likes... Anyway, thoughts?
It's down to personal choice, but for me I can't do major re-writes, once it's out there, it's out there. Minor tinkering and fixing typos is fine, but I feel that to do a major re-write once published just feels wrong somehow. But, with the way CHYOA works, I see no reason why a different branch couldn't be used, along with a simple explanation of why you did the re write and why you've taken it in the new direction. This leaves the original up and also satisfies the need to update it.
I have done small rewrites and retcons in stories that were still in progress. For example, if in chapter 30 I realize it would be useful if there was a bit of setup in chapter 10, I'll add it. It's the reverse of Checkov's gun: "if a gun is fired in the second or third act, then you must hang it on the wall in the first". Foreshadowing is great, because it lets readers feel smart. But large or even complete rewrites? No. I'd rather write something brand new than spend all that time updating something to make it, say, 10% or 20% better. And as you hinted at yourself, readers may prefer the original version. The "Han shot first" controversy is a great example of this in action. Just leave it be. Dealing with the fact that we used to suck is part of growing as artists. We've all been there!
I feel the same way. I'll fix typos and clean up prose, even add a small elements/retcon details that make the chapter work better with ideas I came up with as I wrote later chapters, but I haven't done wholesale rewrites. I like the idea of starting a new branch. Even if it doesn't diverge, you can write a second chapter and link it to the chapter that follows your first attempt, so a reader can select either version and continue with the story..
If you feel that the chapter is so bad that it deserves to be deleted, then yes, write over it and don't look back. If you merely want to improve your old work, why not make a copy in another branch\story? You offer more to the readers this way.
