# Reluctant to publish due to future changes in viewpoint **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105 "2015-07-03T02:37:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/1 "2015-07-03T02:37:04Z")
So, I’m writing a military-thriller fiction novel, but I find myself rather reluctant to publish it. Why? Because I’m sure that, no matter how good the military-thriller novel may seem right now - and I think it is a good story, if I do say so myself - that I’ll probably look back on it 20 or 30 years from now and think, “Wow, that was a dumb story idea,” or “I can’t believe I wrote something so unrealistic,” etc. But I can’t sit on my book forever and not publish it, either. So…have any of you ever dealt with this issue - namely, publishing a work of fiction (or a music album, or nonfiction book, or whatever) - but then later on, years down the road, regretting it, thinking that it was dumb or poorly-written? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/2 "2015-07-03T02:51:11Z")
Publish it. I know plenty of writers who cringe when they look at their earlier work. The point, though, was that it was the best you could do at the time, and there’s nothing embarrassing about being published. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/3 "2015-07-03T03:05:18Z")
Exactly so. Publish, and be proud today. Let tomorrow take care of itself. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/4 "2015-07-03T03:20:34Z")
As Chuck Wendig so wisely says, the answer to all your writing and publishing woes is “write another”. Publish it. Then write another. Don’t look back. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/5 "2015-07-03T03:22:58Z")
This sounds like an excuse. Publish it. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/6 "2015-07-03T03:48:26Z")
Make it sci fi. Set it in the past, and be embarrassed now, so you won’t be in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/7 "2015-07-03T03:48:30Z")
The world could end next week, too. Look, every single thing you write about today’s world will look slightly off in 20 years. Twenty years ago we didn’t have cellphones or social media. Every description of every everyday activity now looks odd. You can’t avoid that in fiction. You basic word choice will be a bit odd as the language evolves. And yet we do read fiction from 20 years ago, and 50, and 150. Publish or don’t. But this excuse is ludicrous. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/8 "2015-07-03T03:55:36Z")
Then why on earth did you even bother to write it? Publish it. You could be run over by a bus next week and die forgotten by the world. At least this way they can point and laugh for all eternity. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/9 "2015-07-03T04:46:29Z")
Set it in the present but throw in the occasional off-kilter pop culture reference like how Jack Lord played Captain Kirk or how Spiro Agnew lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976, i.e. the story is set in a parallel universe so deviations from the real world are to be expected. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/10 "2015-07-03T04:56:04Z")
I think you are thinking of it wrong. Use it like a “time capsule” to see how/if your thinking changes. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/11 "2015-07-03T10:07:09Z")
What’s the likelihood that anyone other than you are going to care about it in 20 years time? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/12 "2015-07-03T11:51:56Z")
Publish it. The ideas may grow stale, but the money you earn won’t. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/13 "2015-07-03T12:21:06Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > As Chuck Wendig so wisely says, the answer to all your writing and publishing woes is “write another”. > > Publish it. Then write another. Don’t look back. You know Chuck? Heh, always weird when two ‘worlds’ collide. But yes, he has some great advice for aspiring writers, you should have a Rae of his blog, OP! ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/14 "2015-07-03T14:05:05Z")
\*read of his blog :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/15 "2015-07-03T18:13:32Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > But yes, he has some great advice for aspiring writers, you should have a Rae of his blog, OP! Who Rae? Indeed, Hip Hip Who Rae! ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctant-to-publish-due-to-future-changes-in-viewpoint/724105/16 "2015-07-03T21:02:48Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Publish it. The ideas may grow stale, but the money you earn won’t. Yep.