Temptation to continue an old story after re-reading

[W_L]

Today, I got a notification when I logged in when someone read my old anthology story Dreamer without a Dream from Dec 2011 "Aftermath" anthology. I am not sure why or how the reader found the story, but it made me re-read my own work. Reading it made me remember how bleak and tragic I wrote the entire entry, it was dark.

I am tempted to write a sequel to it for the next anthology in October 2021, "An Unconventional Gift", sort of a way to give hope where there was none. I am not sure if this is just a gut reaction after re-reading my old story.

Have any of you ever done something like that: re-read your old short stories from years ago and found a need to go back to an old story?

Edited July 6, 2021 by W_L

[Myr]

All the time. I've got a just about 20 yr old story to finish too.  I just get dragged off on endless other tasks.  Like getting the software updated this morning for the changes to profile and getting the newsletter edited and sent out.  And working with Cia on badges for the new achievement system that's coming.  Just to name a few

 

[Arch Hunter]

I've only been writing for a year and a half and now for the first time I'm returning to my "old" second story. At first I found it hard to rediscover the characters' voices and immerse myself in their world but now I'm having a total blast writing.

However, this story was always meant to be continued. My other stories are done and wrapped-up for good. I'm curious if in 10 years I'll look at one of them and suddenly realize I want to go back and explore it some more. A decade of real-life experiences can put a new perspective and ideas into your head so I totally see that happening even though at the moment I consider the stories finished. 

[JamesSavik]

You'll get over it. Just find something new and shiny to play with.

[W_L]

5 hours ago, jamessavik said:

You'll get over it. Just find something new and shiny to play with.

"Grabs closest shiny thing and attempts to turn it on" 

Dang, it needs batteries, should have paid extra for USB charging

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You are right, mostly @jamessavik, but writing bitter tragedy nags at me, especially this one.

An ending where the main character is stuck, neither alive nor dead, unable to interact with the person he loves as he took his own life in sorrow or interact with the world to stop unfortunate events, knowing death is not allowed for him. This was hell on earth.

If I do continue Dreamer without a dream, I won't be able to give my main character a happy ending without divine intervention or Deus Ex Machina explanation with some scientific breakthrough, which doesn't fit this story's tone. Yet, I think I can give absolution from the hell I put him in and offer him a glimpse of something else, a seed of something.

 

[MrM]

I wrote a story, a few years ago, called Adagio. It was a fairly short and self-contained story, but I created a character for it that I thought might have an interesting backstory. After revisiting this story I wrote Umbereth which was the follow-on. I didn’t intend to write the follow-on as the immediate sequel since I was trying to cobble together another story that would be a direct consecutive sequel to the first story called Angelus Canticum: The Second Movement. As it turned out, this sequel became a much more complex story than the original and I found I couldn’t finish it in time for Halloween that year since I always try to release a spooky story around that time. I banged out Umbereth in a night, however. I guess it is like always with the creative process, you have to follow where your Muse takes you.

So, as a takeaway, I suppose that revisiting old stories to formulate new ones is a beautiful way of starting a world build. 

As for writing tragedies, it is hard to commit to those since we always do hope for a happy ending or we, ourselves, can’t take the pain of what we are about to put our creations through. I think it takes a special brand of courage to create a fairly hopeless story. I have yet to commit to the tragedies I have attempted to write. I think that’s because I am usually discouraged from following through on them since Gay Story tragedies have been more of the norm over comedies (stories staged to have happy endings). 

My story Snowflake was originally going to end in tragedy, but I reimaged things to be quite the opposite. I ended up posting an epilogue that had the pathos I was looking for as the story’s ending, but it, in itself was a very hopeful thing after a life happily lived. It worked well for the story.

I tend to write full-circle stories that contain tragedies, but are either things that happened in the past that have colored the shade of a character, or something that the character has to recover to live fully.

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by MrM