How often do you revamp or reread your old writing?

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   ChristinSposted 8 years ago

   How often do you revamp or reread your old writing?
   
   I've been doing a lot of updates lately to my website and I'm starting to rework some hubs as well.  When I go back and reread, I always find something I can improve or a mistake to fix.  Some things that are older are truly cringe worthy upon reexamination and I've been at this writing thing for a long time. 
   
   How about you? Do you go back and reread or redo? What is your reaction when you do?

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   FatFreddysCatposted 8 years ago

   I do it frequently, and I'm always surprised/appalled at the amount of silly little typo's and errors I pick up on.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      me too! It's funny how you can miss those little things over and over isn't it?

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      dashingscorpioposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I hate it even more when I later find typo's and errors in answers I've written to questions or comments I've left on other people's hubs. You can't go back and edit them! LOL!

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   dashingscorpioposted 8 years ago

   Rarely.
   I tend to do multiple edits the first week or two on a new hub and afterwards I only go back to it to respond to comments. If however I'm notified by HP of a "broken link" or something along those lines I will make the appropriate changes needed.
   All in all I tend to view my writing as an evolving body of work.
   At  some point I believe you just have to let it go.
   Otherwise you'll never be free to write (new) things your readers and followers look forward to.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I can see your point here too, but I still think with age comes wisdom and hopefully improvement so my older stuff gets a revamp here and there.

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   RTalloniposted 8 years ago

   I would like to be able to say that I review/revamp all old hubs once a year, but I never get to all of them.  Keeping up with changes/continued learning curve, working on new posts, and life in general all get in the way of reworking each one.  Opportunities to review them come up by occasion/holiday, comments that come in, or a nudge in my thinking from some source about a particular topic I've written about. 
   When I do it, it is always beneficial.  I agree with you about the reexamination offering a chance for improvement--always!  Reaction?  Always surprise at how careless my work can be in some cases!  :\  And thankfulness for the chance to improve it.  A side note is that sometimes (not always) I do wonder if my improvements have stuck. I've learned that it's important to check to see if the changes somehow reverted.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Time is always working against us isn't it? good point on making sure the revamps actually have the intended response too.

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5. 67

   Rod Marsdenposted 8 years ago

   I add to some hubs that are getting old and need a little updating with fresh facts, etc. Sometimes new art can spruce things up a bit.
   
   As for stories, well, once they've seen print I tend to leave things well enough alone. I did, however, write a short story called The Restaurant which has appeared in three very different anthologies. One version was printed in the UK, one version in Australia and another version in the USA. Each publication had different editors with different requirements. The story in all three forms was my best salute so far to Franz Kafka who is best known for Metamorphosis.
   
   Yes we do learn as we go along.
   
   Last year I wrote a short play about the absurdities of 'reality' television. This year I haven't re-written the play but I have renewed the idea in a different way. The new play I have tentatively titled Zombie Vision. It is weird and lively, maybe humorous...but I won't find that out until it has an audience. It isn't always easy to predict what people will find amusing. Zombie Vision doesn't come with any jokes but it does have off the wall craziness that an audience might laugh at then wonder how they could have possibly found THAT amusing. Think Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco.
   
   I am currently working on a rather dark and sinister novel I have high hopes for titled Cold Water Conscience.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Art and new photos can definitely help.  Sounds like you have a lot of interesting projects going on - good luck with them .

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      Rod Marsdenposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks.

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   bigj1969posted 8 years ago

   Hi Christin ,I go through my hubs every few weeks,and like you say,there are always updates and better ideas that can be added.i do it with my published poetry as well as my hubs.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      that's awesome you can review that often.  I wish I could say I was that diligent, but I'm not .  It's good you can be so on top of things and always improving.

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   peachpurpleposted 8 years ago

   I do edit my old hubs, that is why you don't see I post new hubs for a long time. I noticed broken links too and the Skull sign too. Had to edit a lot and traffic start to pick up

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      That's a good strategy though.  Make things the best you can make them before moving on to the next thing.

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   Edwin Brownposted 8 years ago

   Probably not as often as I should.  I tend to get more excited over writing something new than revisiting my old work.  I will revise old stuff if I truly believe it will help me somehow.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It always helps to revamp.  I used to resist that idea too, until one day I saw just how much some revision would help.

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   CelebrateUSAposted 8 years ago

   I used to try to keep all the broken links out my hubs but that task is never ending.
   I actually enjoy reworking my hubs but alas time does not allow that very much.
   My reaction when I do - ouch especially the ones that have been removed from the HP featured realm.
   Writing is hard for me, I really work at so putting together one article and maintaining it takes allot of time and effort on my part.
   With the latest craziness in HubScores I am seriously rethinking this past time. It has become apparent that only the 95-100 Hubbers do well and my ability to finally achieve that is no longer within my reach.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It is within your reach; don't give up.  Writing is a lifelong commitment. It's like exercise the more you do it the better you get, but if you stop, you lose it.  Keep going and don't let the stupid scores here discourage you.

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      CelebrateUSAposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the encouraging words.

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    Rakim Cheeksposted 8 years ago

    Generally, I go back and reread my hubs every two months. I tend to find a few things in my writing that I'm able improve on such as vocabulary, word structure and sentence coordination. As a result, my hubs come out sounding better. Keep in mind, every writer needs to go back and edit some parts of their material!

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I completely agree. It's funny the things we can pick up on a couple of months later that we didn't see initially.

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    alancaster149posted 8 years ago

    Like you I periodically update or revamp Hub-pages. I usually do that when I see the pages listed in blue on the account page. If I don't think there's anything I can add or take out, I don't. Simple. Sometimes, when,  I see a black triangle under a title I see to it and check the page at the same time. Again, if I can't see any reason for change, I don't (I've got enough to do without tarting up my pages), 'nuff said.

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       True.  One reason I do try to add on a bit is that Google likes "fresh" content. Updates every so often give a bit of a boost to traffic overall. I definitely have other stuff to do as well so I understand.

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    reinhardBeckposted 8 years ago

    I've been doing that for the last 5 years or so. I started writing "The Art and Theory of Goalkeeping in 1998. I thought I had finished it in 2006. On my way to work in 2010 I thought of a couple of witty lines that I thought would "improve" it. But I did nothing about it until 2010 when I hit apon the idea of publishing it as an ebook. But I thought I'd add these witty lines first. I ended up rewritng the book entirely and adding another 25,000 words. Because every time I switched on my computer and picked a page at random I could see something that I wanted to change.  By the end of 2012 I was convinced that it was no definately finished. But again, I was wrong. I ended up unpublishing it from Amazon and work on it some more.  And the reason is I'm always having ideas of what I can add or change. The other reason why I can't leave it alone is because I look at a sentence or a paragraph and I can think of 2 or 3 ways to write it. And it takes me a long time to decide what to do. The other problem is that once you make a change, even it's a small one it sometimes means you have to change the whole sentence...and then the sentence after that. Which means you have to then change the following paragraph (or add one) and before you know it you've rewritten the whole book when all you intended to do was change a couple of words. So to answer your question: I update my work alot. And the lesson I've learned is this: it will never be finished; even when I've finished it. And one day when my book is a huge success and I'm heaped with praise and prizes I know I will still look through my master piece and think "you know what, that sentence just there...it's not quite right. I ought to change it."

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I see myself in this. I am one who is never fully 100% satisfied with my writing. I always see things I could change or try differently and one leads to another and another.

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    Stargrrlposted 8 years ago

    I have done it recently.  My hubs were on another site and I took them off--then rewrote them on here, but enhanced them.  My hubs are better than ever!

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       It's always a good feeling when we take something we've created and make it even better.

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    Jodahposted 8 years ago

    Hi Christin. My first are hubs are like my kids. They Amy not be the greatest but they are still featured and mean a lot to me. If need be I go back over my lower scoring hubs or older ones and update from time to time..add a little additional info, a video or just improve something. I have about 190 hubs and haven't deleted any yet..maybe one day I'll feel differently but I doubt it.

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I get attached to my writing too I wouldn't delete unless you're republishing them someplace else.  Otherwise just update and give them nourishment from time to time.

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    Venkatachari Mposted 8 years ago

    I didn't think of rereading and revamping until recently till I got the weekly message from hubpages about the amendments being made towards hub scoring. Even then, I did not start it.
    Previously, I made some editing in one of my hubs and it showed up as a recently published hub on my profile showing the date of the edit as the publishing date. So, I did not touch again.
    But, now, since my score has dropped by 22 points, I had to think of updating the hubs.
    Only yesterday, I edited two hubs- one about cigarette smoking and other a writing challenge "Door to Nowhere". The hub score increased  from 67 to 73 after editing. But hubber score is still 67 whereas my overall average is 73 at present.
    Now, I will not care about the change in date of publish and decided to improve all my hubs one by one. I can do this with my other own sites also.

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Glad you saw the hub score improve with the updates - that's encouraging.  Hubber scores are always slow to move - don't let that discourage you.  Yes, update all sites. That's what I'm doing now and it's helped me a lot.

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    Ghaelachposted 8 years ago

    Hi Christin,
    I would say that I edit every month or so when I have a few hubs that are not featured because of traffic. It could be something simple like adding a bit more updated infomation. There's not a lot you can do when you have a F/F hub (flash fiction). That story is how you wrote it and the ending is yours.
    If HQ deem it to be lacking quality, that is then a question whether a person likes it or not. Something like a question of taste. Then I would delete the unfeatured hub and save it for another site.
    From an approximately 200 hubs I am sadly down to 80. Allowing for the first ones to be not of a good standard, which I can except.
    I'm at HP because I enjoy writing and creating my stories of which I find very good. But as I'm not a writer by trade, those that are may think my writing otherwise.
    I accept your point of view about revamping old hubs, but I feel that would only happen on hubs containing info and not in a story that was written a couple of years ago. You would have to re-write the whole story as they do with old and modern films.
    
    Jimmy............................................................aka Ghaelach

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Jimmy, I can definitely see your point with stories and it would certainly be a different need there for revamping.  As for engagement maybe a poll to ask your readers questions about what they like or dislike? Social media for promotion?

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    mrwilson1216posted 8 years ago

    I reread several times before I post to make sure I'm comfortable with it. The after I post, I reread and I still find errors. How does that happen? Must be gremlins.

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Yep, those gremlins happen to the best of us

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    M. T. Dremerposted 8 years ago

    I re-read my old writing constantly. I'm often able to re-connect with the mindset I had while writing it, so it's kind of like looking through a photo album. Revamping, however, is a different story. Editing is one of my least favorite parts of the writing process, so I really only update old stuff if I have to. And, even then, my favorite method of fixing something old is to scrap it and write it anew. So, the worse it sounds when I re-read it, the easier it is to fix. But if it sounds 'okay' I'm just going to leave it as it is. Which is to the detriment of a project that may seriously need updating.

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       ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I understand where you're coming from. I hate editing too and much prefer the creative part of the process, but I do find if I go back and reconnect with my work there is a part of me that cant' leave well enough alone - I have to fix it lol

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    Say Yes To Lifeposted 8 years ago

    I revamp my hubs when I get additional information or ideas after publishing, and also when they're un-featured.

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