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The issue of the re-write

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Mark
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Okay - this is something that has bugged me for awhile now and it's time I finally addressed it.

At what point should you - if ever - decide to embark on a wholesale re-write of something you're done with?

Looking back over the myriad of things I've written over the years I can see where I've recycled ideas a few times into better versions of them but I've always tried to stay away from simply re-writing something for the sake of it. I've looked at some of my older stuff - produced over 5-10 years ago - and I've contemplated running my eye over it again to see how I could improve it now...yet something about that feels wrong; I'd finished the story, I'd moved on from there and I hadn't ventured back to it due to the fact I knew the tale was done and dusted.

And yet there's this niggling little itch that screams at me to go over it again...

Is this just a quirk that I appear to have or does everyone else "suffer" with the same urge?
Ashleigh
Active Ink Slinger
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I have never done a re-write, even though there is much of my writing that would probably benefit from it.

With my longer pieces, I do like to take a break from the story and leave it alone for a few weeks (or months) at a time so that I can re-read it with fresh eyes and look at it from a more critical angle.

Unfortunately if I don't like what I've written, I usually just abandon the entire thing rather than re-write.

I might get around to it one day, but there always seems to be new ideas I'd rather concentrate my efforts on before going back to clean up the rest.
Lisa
Active Ink Slinger
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I considered doing a rewrite of a novel I wrote about ten years ago, but after skimming through it, it just seems like it'd be too much work...almost like having to rework the whole thing. I feel like my time would be better spent calling that a learning experience and moving on, using the knowledge I've gained since then to start something new.