Argon is Petered out. (His latest story is a rewrite.)
"Petered out" is an informal idiom that means to gradually become smaller, weaker, or less before stopping or ending. For example, you might say "The fighting petered out by morning" or "My money petered out and I have to end my trip".
A lot of folks do rewrites. It's hardly that unusual, as it keeps you in practice, keeping your writing fresh, without a substantial struggle. I can think of several SOL authors that do it on a routine basis, so I really don't see why he'd stand out in particular.
We all have periods when we'd prefer to coast, and I'm not about to criticize anyone for taking things easy for a bit.
I'm still engaged in a re-edit. I'm not sure if it counts as coasting, considering how much work has gone into it now, but ...
Reedits count as revisions, it's not new content, yet it's still content related, as it's an update, so updating an ongoing story isn't the same as 'revising' an older story, as that's not a new story, so it simply won't get nearly as many views.
Thus my 'coasting' comment, as long as he's not writing new content, it's mostly 'busy work' until he's ready to tackle something new. Though, I'm sure he's got his own view on the topic, as those reposts are now VERY common, as it keeps the older stories in circulation, whereas they'd simply disappear behind the paywall otherwise.
Thus it serves a valid purpose, yet feels a bit like 'manipulating' the system, however I haven't read enough of those reposted stories to know just how worthwhile they are to read. So my interpretation could be completely wrong. But most of those reposting stories, the stories generally aren't those I'm not interested in.
Yes, I just finished 'cleaning up' my main story. I completed a thorough edit, but other than adding some small bits to bolster subplots, nothing new was added and even less deleted.
That's where I am, with one exception. One of my chapters does not work given railroad routes, and the route I imply existed makes no sense. So it's replaced by something that does work. But the missing city / scenes have nearly nothing in the way of plot impact, so it's fine, and I've been telling people it's going away for years.
Yes, I just finished 'cleaning up' my main story. I completed a thorough edit, but other than adding some small bits to bolster subplots, nothing new was added and even less deleted.
As always, there's nothing wrong with that, as if we truly care about our stories, most of us tend to be a bit obsessive with them, always wanting them to be perfect.
Yet it's one reason why I tend to STOP patching my older typos, as each time I do, I start revising and can't stop, often chaining the underlying story as I do. Thus, once I reach that 'obsessive' point of wanting to revise large passages at a time, I step away from the story, more worried about ruining the whole thing than somehow making it better.
Which is the nice things about author blog posts, as if the author informs readers that the actual story has changed, then we know to back to reread the change and see how it affects the whole story, or just not bother with it (after all, most of us end-up rereading our favorites stories eventually anyway).
And 'tightening' a story is always beneficial, as meandering sentences never helps a story, harkening the old "Get to the point, damn it!" impulse. ;)
it keeps the older stories in circulation, whereas they'd simply disappear behind the paywall otherwise.
That's not true, see
https://storiesonline.net/author/posting_guidelines.php#r16
Stories only becomes premier 3 years after the last author visit. There is no need to revise a story or be productive.
Well maybe the SOL policy has changed while I've been gone, yet for us older authors, ALL of my stories were only accessible via the paywall, which few non-authors opt to pay for, focusing on the currently posting stories.
I can see all of them, yet when I do, I can also see that nine of my stories were 'archived' as 'non-active' back in 2024.
However, that wasn't my focus in bringing it up. Instead, it's the inherent confusion over whether the reposting of stories are actually rewrites, revisions or simply 'general cleanups', as I've noticed that some authors seem to repeatedly revise the same stories, time and again, including all three (simple corrections, revisions and several different complete rewrites of the same concept).
As a bit of a control freak, I have trouble dealing with such widespread recycling of stories, so I prefer knowing when things change, so I'll know when to ignore updates. But again, as a control freak, that's my own private compulsion.
Then again, I assume, if I went back, opened an old story, copy and paste it, only changing a single word, would likely make ALL of my stories active again, as I stopped publishing/posting to Bookapy and SOL around 2021.
I think when the stories were auto-archived they were supposed to be unarchived if the author returned.
Changing a Story's settings
When I returned to SOL after a ten year hiatus (not my idea) I asked Lazeez if my old stories could be unarchived, and he was kind enough to do so. I don't think there is any way it could be done thru the link you provided.
Thanks for the suggestion, as I was planning to 'repost' each individual story, many of which I've 'monkeyed with' over the years.
Several of his recent posting have been rewrites. Worth a re-read too, stories have less rough passages.
See, that's where we differ. For me, a 'rewrite' is where someone completely rewrites a story (i.e. they toss the old story in the trash and start again from scratch) whereas a revision is where you 'clean up' older writing, with little new content, improving on something older, and in need of some cleaning up—especially as one's writing style changes over time.
Those are classic literary terms, though in most mainstream published content, once a book is published, it's NEVER revised, whereas with eBooks, since there's no cost to reprinting them, revisions are a non-brainer, so you correct them whenever you spot something wrong with it. And of course, the same is true with any 'Print on Demand' (POD) books, like those on Bookapy, thus the reader pays for each copy, paying the printing charges, unlike to publishing houses approach republishing costs as a MAJOR investment of hundreds of thousands of books at a time.
Richard often posts Puns.
This was a "low hanging fruit"...
Enjoy the pun, and enjoy the improved version of the story.
I've got to admit, I like puns. There's some debate in literary circles over them, as it's sometimes a matter of breaking the proverbial 'third wall' (i.e. directly addressing the reader), as otherwise, puns only work is a character drops them, since the narrator isn't generally considered a story character, it raises issues when they crack jokes. ;)
(i.e. on SOL, either one is OK, but there ARE certain publishing standards, aside from SOL's post-as-you-write model.)
I've got to admit, I like puns
I saw a program on Nova, the pbs science series, about the development of written language. They showed how the initial efforts were hydrographic like symbols representing physical objects. But verbs and abstract concepts had no graphical representation, so two or more symbols for physical objects that when spoken together would sound like the verb or concept began to be used. So all of alphabets and ultimately all written language is based on a series of puns
I have a wierd, off topic question here.
This thread was started by Richard Shagrin. As many of us know, there are several people who have blocked his comments in the forum. So, they can't SEE anything he posts.
So, is there anyone out there, who has blocked him but can still see this thread, or parts of it?
If no one responds, I will assume that the entire tread is invisible to them.
Just curious.
I can see the thread, but I can't see the original post. Confused me for a couple of minutes.
Peter Are gone is not gone. But is no longer a noble gas.
"Argon (Ar) is a chemical element and noble gas that's colorless, odorless, and nonflammable. It's the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere.
Discovery and properties
Sir William Ramsay and Lord John Rayleigh discovered argon in 1894.
The name argon comes from the Greek word argos, which means "lazy one".
Argon is heavier than air and can asphyxiate by displacing air."
Your lame word plays are boring. You call yourself richard, but now you are being just a dick.
That's why he was dubbed with the moniker The Grinning Dick.
However, you've forgotten the prime rule of Usenet et al. Don't feed the Trolls
However, you've forgotten the prime rule of Usenet et al. Don't feed the Trolls
And before that: Don't feed the pets at the table.