For some background, I've been contributing to a story for years now, since early '04. I've written several different storylines that I really enjoy adding to and will continue to develop in the future. That said, there are a number of early chapters leading into mine that have grammatical, spelling and POV errors and I think it's really hurting people's ability to find my work. Here's the question: Do you think it would be alright for me to start a new story with a new, more coherent introduction, that then leads into the story lines I've already created?
Yes you should create new story. First impresion you can do only once and new story is a chance to find new readers if you publish more chapters on beginning. For egzample Hambo write a lot chapters to Monster Girls ENF/CFNM, but later when he improve his writing style, he create own story Losing it all, and use chapters in better way. So if you use your own work, there is no copywriting and you don't have to worry about anything.
This problem is exactly why I avoid big public stories as a writer, and often don't see the appeal as a reader. The quality of the story as a whole is determined by whatever comes first. You could write a masterpiece, but if it's branching off of alphabet soup, it's only going to be accessed by people who, for whatever reason, enjoyed the soup in question; not to mention, favourites and incidental likes on the early chapters will go to someone who had no hand in your writing. I'd say yes, but you may want a mod to weigh in with regards to duplicate stories.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m just going to go for it and if mods have an issue I’ll deal with it then. I want a greater level of control over my story and, more importantly, I want people to actually read it. Given that it currently branches of a chapter that reads..... “Where in time is the civilization the old west, dinosar time or diffent time.“ .....I don’t think that anyone will really mind.
Although I must say, that's almost meme worthy. Right up there with "All Your Base" as far as need for editing, yet somehow shows the need for old west and Dinosaurs at the same time. Dammit, Now I want an old west dinosaur chyoa!
This is something that could be fixed. If the story owner isn't active anymore, you could adopt the story. Otherwise, it might be possible to become an editor anyway and polish the existing chapters. (Though this is some extra work and might create consistency problems with other branches.) Depends on if you'll actually do something new or just retell the branches up to where your branches start. (Though writing new story lines to your entry points might even be more work than revising the existing material of other authors.) If it was my decision, I'd remove the public option for several reasons.
The author is still active on CHYOA. I've tried to contact him several times about becoming an editor for the story but he hasn't responded to any of my requests. With respect to beginning the story again and filling in the gaps, I want to create a new and more comprehensive origin story for my character. Nothing overly elaborate because I still want the reader to see the character as a reflection of themselves, I just want something a little meatier. My branches happen fairly early in the story, around chapter 4-6 (there are several of them), so there really wouldn't be an excessive amount of story to retell, but I would still like a little more control in terms of outlining how the character gets from A (intro)-B (my threads) and so on. Moving forward, this will not be a public story. I honestly don't want anyone adding to my work.
Well, if the story owner isn't up for that solution, I guess it's fine. (Apart from that, it would be better not to rip collaborative stories apart.) If you go for a new story, you should make it your own beginning without retelling. There is always the option moderated where you can review additions before they become part of your story.
Another alternative is writing somewhere in the description of the story that you may add other users as authors should they contact you via PM Make your own story. Write a short summary of prior events and provide a link to the original story together with the path to your chapter(s). Should someone wish to read the full version they will be able to do so or they may be satisfied by the short introduction.
... I actually want to read that now. In all seriousness, I don't see any problem as long as you don't copy from other authors in those new preceding chapters. Make a disclaimer in the first chapter and try to make the introduction as different as posible and in your own way. I would also add a notification on the old story, to announce your readers there that you are moving. And moderated mode is awesome, far better than the mess that is public. You get to read (an even edit) all new chapters from other authors before approving them.
Thanks for the feedback! Ended up going for it. Wrote several new chapters that lead into the original ones and rewrote or reworked every other chapter to the point where most are unrecognizable. It’s still undergoing edits for consistency and quality but I think it’s on the right path. https://chyoa.com/story/The-Lost-World.28730
I more or less did this very thing with an ideal I got working on Cartoon Robosluts. The idea was solid but it didn't go as well as I hoped. Then, after getting inspired by my friends to continue, I redid the whole thing and it's become a beloved project that isn't restricted to the original concept. And I'm considering doing it again, with another story, mainly because I think I can take an idea and make it bigger and better and worth a full story.
^ I think this is a common issue with ideas - you can never tell whether one will last for just a few hundred words, or whether you can squeeze from it tens of chapters with ease. It's why I plan ahead, so I know how far I can take a concept before scenes become too similar, dull, or absurd.
