Old Works, Much Work

I do need something to occupy myself with while I have my period. During the first few days, I can always forget about writing - I can’t focus enough. The last time I had my period, I did go ahead and look over my old stories. My old Loki stories, to be more precise.

 

So far, I’ve only published six stories about Loki - the six collected in “The Loki Files” Volume 1 and Volume 2. I have written quite some more with different versions of Loki. Yet, I wrote most of them between 2013 and 2016 - then I dove into other stories and created Jane Browne and the Knight Agency.

 

Loki motivated me to get back into writing during my burnout. I watched “Marvel’s The Avengers” and fell in love with Loki as played so excellently by Tom Hiddleston. I’ve always had a soft spot for villains and Loki is complicated in the MCU, not a pure villain, but not really a hero, either.

I’m a big fan of Norse mythology, too, so I’m also very familiar with the mythological Loki, not just with the guy from the comics and comic book movies. Loki is a multi-faceted character, which plays into the many different varieties of him I wrote. I’ve stayed away from the darkest versions of Loki (there are a few unfinished stories about such characters on my HD, though), but there are different versions of him, nevertheless. Some are playful, some are resentful and need to overcome that. Some are more mature, some less so. Some are close to the MCU, some are miles away from it. “Living Conditions” even refers to the MCU and their movies while “In The Blood” has a completely different mythology behind it and is much closer to old Norse tales.

Loki renewed my enjoyment of writing. Without him, I would never have started writing other things and I would never have come up with Jane and those who followed her. My catalogue on Amazon and D2D (which is getting something akin to impressive by now) would not exist. Loki also cured my burnout, which I’m eternally grateful for.

 

I originally released those stories on Feedbooks, where I could publish them for free and have other people read them. Admittedly, I haven’t looked into my account there for a long while, but the stories are still there, in the way I did edit them at that time.

While re-reading them, I realized how much both my regular writing style and my editing have evolved since then. I’m still prone to overly long sentences (I always was, in both languages I speak well), but I’m much better at writing more varied sentences now. Over time, I’ve also learned to edit much more precisely. After all, I’m taking money from people for what I write, so it should be in as good a shape as I can make it, given I can’t afford another editor. Luckily, I’m an editor, too.

 

Unluckily, I’m an editor, too, because I just couldn’t fully put down my editor hat while I was re-reading the stories. They are good, I certainly enjoyed them, but the writing is lacking. The grammar is fine, but the sentences are not varied at all. Some expressions need serious work. The stories don’t shine as much as they could.

I can tell that making them shine will be hard work, taking me a lot of time and energy. I’m not sure whether to put in the time, but a part of me wants to. A part of me wants to see the stories shine.

I guess I could put them into an anthology of sorts. They’re not all about the same Loki. As a matter of fact, not two of them are about the same Loki. There’s only two that got more than one story and neither will be in this anthology, as I have different plans with “Swenson & Carter” and “The Loki Files” are already released.

I would, presumably, also have to leave out the three erotic stories, because that would make publishing the rest easier. Yet, I could edit them. I’ve also put together my erotica so far and will, at some point, probably edit that. The three stories from my Loki period can join the others.

The rest goes from light-hearted to more dramatic, but most are on the light-hearted side. As with “The Loki Files” starting off dramatic with “Heart of Ice”, but getting much more light-hearted later, I have mostly written fun stories. I’m not that much into melodramas.

 

A lot of hard work - that’s the point at which I’m a bit unsure. I will have to put more hours into copy editing with this one than I usually do these days. Every sentence will need tender loving care. It’s a challenge. I’m not a fan of editing at the best of times.

The stories deserve it - that’s the other point. I enjoy those stories, despite their age, can hardly fault them when it comes to content. They’re not written as well as I would write them these days, but that can be remedied. I want to see what they can be like.

 

What’s it going to be? An anthology with freshly edited stories? A consolidated file with all of the stories in one place, instead of having each of them, including the very short ones, as a file of its own? Will I publish them at some point (though certainly not this year)?

Currently, I can’t say. It’s an idea, but not something that needs deciding immediately. At some point, I will make the decision. I will at least consolidate them. I will edit them. I will judge them afterwards. Then, they might go into my Amazon and my D2D catalogue. Or they might just go onto my kindle as one file instead of several. I’ll see what happens.

 

Is there a lesson to this post? Yes. The lesson is not to underestimate what you’ve written at the beginning. Over time, you will get better at writing. You will get better with grammar. You will expand your vocabulary. It’s how things go. Your older works, the stories you wrote at the beginning, will show their weaknesses. But erasing weaknesses is what editing is for. Polishing is what you do when you edit. Look over your old stories and see what can and what needs to be done to make them better. Then do it, even if it’s long and hard work. In the end, it will be worth it.