: Re: Not wanting to "spoil" a story due to lack of skill I have a story that is dear to me and that I would very much want to write about. However, I don't have lots of experience in writing

@Kristi637

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Who told you it's bad to rewrite a story? That's terrible advice. No one ever publishes something without a ton of rewrites, and many well-known writers revisit similar themes over and over. It took me a long, unproductive time to realize that writing is a process, and that you have to embrace it. You only get better by doing it. You can't produce something good except by work and rework, by writing and rewriting. Not every word will be gold, and that's more than okay. The less fixated you are on the final result, the better your work will become.
I'm personally working on a novel that was based on a dream I had 15 years ago. I've previously tried writing it as a story, a graphic novel and screenplay. I feel like each iteration added depth I couldn't have gotten any other way. Or, if you'd prefer a example from a famous author, consider Nabakov. His masterwork, Lolita, reworked themes from his much less successful novel of seventeen years earlier, Laughter in the Dark.
Keep in mind, no one has to see your drafts (although getting good critiques is a crucial way to improve). You might write a version today that's terrible. That's progress! Let it sit in a drawer for a while, and learn to fix the things that are wrong with it. When you get it back out again, you'll be in a better position to write it more as you want it to be. The only time rewriting is a problem is when it's no longer making anything better, when it's a retreat from sharing your work and letting people react to it. But that's not your problem today. You can't let the fear of it stop you from even getting started.

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