Fifty More Horror Clichés That Should Be Left to Spoil

#24: Ditch Old Stories and Content

In this special editorial part, I will be debunking the overly ridiculous cliché for not only horror but all genres of fiction that you should trash your old stories. While older material you may have created in the past most likely will be filled with quite a few mistakes, there is most likely a strong story idea inside of it that could be reworked into something incredible. Just because an idea did not work out well the first time does not mean you should completely give up on the story entirely. After analyzing the story material a little bit, there should be a great idea in-between the layers that once rewritten would be better than the original narrative.

When I mention old story ideas, I do not exclusively mean all of the unfinished content you have on solely Watt Pad. I additionally mean potential notebooks full of character concepts and plots for stories that you may have stored inside of your closest somewhere. There is also your laptop or old reports you had to write for school that could have content that would make for a fantastic story. As long as there is story content, really anything in your procession can be looked at and remade into an amazing new story. It might take a little time to gather up everything, but all that patience will pay off in the end. All of a sudden, you could have two or three fully fledged potential story ideas sitting right in front of you.

Take it from me, who had an experience in which old content I had one time on Watt Pad that I nearly deleted became the most viewed story in my entire collection. For those who have no clue which story I am talking about, it was believe it or not the book that helped inspire this very creation you are reading now; One Hundred Fantasy Clichés That Really Need To Rest In Peace.  Currently, the book stands with about 125,000 views that is still rising now due to a continued word of mouth.  It is the very story on Watt Pad that helped get my page recognized, and I almost freaking deleted it early in its production.

  Early on in the book's history, the viewership for it was extremely low.  I was lucky to get five views at most with each part, and that was on a good day.  Then when I released the twelfth part, suddenly my viewership ran completely dry.  No one was seemingly checking out my fantasy clichés editorial anymore, which made me think immediately that I was doing something wrong.  Because I was so frustrated at the potential mess I made with that editorial, I stopped production of it entirely and was extremely close to deleting all the parts I already published.

  But then a few months later, something crazy started happening.  Suddenly, my fantasy clichés editorial was rising quickly in viewership, despite the fact I had stopped updating content for it months before.  People started praising what I had written and were asking for me to release more content!  Seeing that the viewership for my editorial was easily reaching a couple hundred at the time, I decided to go back to updating my book, thinking that doing so would continue to increase my viewership on the book.  The plan ended up working successfully and the story I nearly ditched became an icon of my page, still receiving high amounts of viewership to this day.  Going back to some seemingly old, rusty material in my writing library changed everything for my Watt Pad career.  That book to this day is one of my grandest achievements not only on Watt Pad but in my personal life.

  By saving your old writing material, you could end up in a situation just like if not better than mine.  Those old stories you might want to delete or throw out could be blockbusters in disguise, waiting for an audience to completely indulge in them.  You might have to rework a few things here and there, but the final product should be something special not only for you but the audience.  There is no such thing as a bad idea for a story as most people would probably have you believe.  With a lot of effort, a so-called "bad" story could be reworked into something great.

  Even for the stories you have written now that do not seem to be big hits, I recommend saving them in case something in the future causes you to go back to them and create a potential masterpiece.  You never know what hidden gem might be hiding in plain sight.