Have you ever gone back….

[Trionyx]

Have you ever gone back and read one of your old stories and thought, “I still can’t believe I wrote that. Maybe I don’t suck at writing after all.”?

 

[SimonDoom]

Yes, I've thought that. It's gratifying because I spent over 30 years of my life -- from my teens to my early 50s -- not writing one word of fiction. I knew I could write in the context of my profession, but I had no clue if I could do fiction. I was pleased with the results when I did, and I was pleased to see that there were some readers who liked what I did.

 

[AchtungNight]

I have looked at my old work on occasion and thought that it had quality, yes. I have also thought “I can’t believe I was the one who wrote this” or “Thank goodness I’ve improved!”

 

[EmilyMiller]

Have you ever gone back and read one of your old stories and thought, “I still can’t believe I wrote that. Maybe I don’t suck at writing after all.”?

Yeah. I tend to assume my early stories are just clinical, descriptive porn and essentially stroke story drivel. Then I read one and think, “well, there are at least some initial signs that I might be able to write OK one day.” Still waiting for that day, but I think I’m getting closer .

Em

 

[NoTalentHack]

Have you ever gone back and read one of your old stories and thought, “I still can’t believe I wrote that. Maybe I don’t suck at writing after all.”?

I've been cleaning up stories to post elsewhere. There have been ones where I cringe, but others--in some cases a few of my oldest--I'm like, "Wow, this is really good! It needs a pass to clear out a bunch of passive voice, but I can't believe I wrote this!"

 

[HeyAll]

I've gone back and re-edited many of my old stories.

Sometimes I'll look and certain passages and think, hey that's pretty good. Other times I'll look at passages and think, that's awful.

 

[StillStunned]

As a professional editor I have it. To be clear, the texts I edit usually involve a complete rewrite. Everything from spelling, punctuation and grammar to vocabulary, logic and consistency. So essentially I write them. I'll sometimes see them again when I'm looking something up, and think, "Wow, whoever wrote this really knows how to write!"

My own creations here? There are some bits that make me proud, but mostly I see the shortcomings.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Some of my oldest stuff scrubs up okay, even with a collection of some of the newbie errors we see pop up here. Really? Nothing worth an edit though, I've left them as lessons learned.

What did surprise me is how early some of my typical tropes started to appear. And how good some sentences are - "You're kidding, did I actually write that?"

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Yeah, sometimes I'll read something and be like; "yeah, I wrote that," and other times it's like; "I can't believe I wrote that." On one occasion I read something and asked my laptop out loud; "who the fuck wrote this‽"

 

[AG31]

Have you ever gone back and read one of your old stories and thought, “I still can’t believe I wrote that. Maybe I don’t suck at writing after all.”?

This exact thing happened to me today. I very rarely read my old stories, but today I did. I couldn't believe I came up with those perfect words. Never mind turns of phrase! I think I must go into a zone when I write a story.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Um, one or two stories back in the day. But mostly, I'm like, "I can't believe I sucked this bad."

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Yep, I've looked back at a few stories. Some make me cringe, and some make me wonder if I was the one who actually wrote them.

 

[Djmac1031]

I went through a phase were I was rereading my stories regularly because.... well, frankly, it was nice to be able to revisit my own fantasies as a spectator and enjoy them on that level.

I don't do that as often. But some I do revisit and as many have also stated, I get mixed reactions.

Some I think are great. Others, not so much.

I don't HATE any of my old stuff, though. And even the ones that aren't so good, I enjoy seeing my progression.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I don't usually go back and read my old stories. But I got a nice comment on my first Halloween story from uh, four years ago, and so I started reading it again. Usually when I start an old story I've written I get bored by the end of the first page, because I remember what happened. But I only remembered the gist of this one, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it flowed. Some of the prose is, you know, a little more purple than I might do now. But nothing too outlandish.

I was a little pleasantly surprised.

 

[Northstar4695]

I like to read my own stories. I write what I find fun, so I guess that’s not surprising. Sometimes I will forget about a minor detail and then I will be amused when I read it again. I find lots to improve as well.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Not once I'd gone Black, no.

...wait what was this thread about again?

 

[Stimtheone]

I give my works the occasional re-read. And stuff I did on a roleplay on another site. Sometimes I had some bangers, sometimes I cringe at what I was doing.

But I can see those moments when I think "Damn, that was GOOD." and feel better about myself.

 

[RainyDayPen]

I read my own work SO MUCH to edit and re-edit and edit the re-edit and blah blah blah I get sick of my stuff a little bit until months and months later.

I've only had that when I'm having a really bad day and for no reason decide I'm the worst writer in the history of the world. Then sometimes it helps to look back and know that while I'm not as good as I want to be one day, I do so much better than I think in my lowest moments.

 

[AchtungNight]

I have edited old works to fix spelling and grammar errors, update continuity issues, and on one occasion tone down serious out of character issues. But Lit doesn’t have the best environment for editing, so I haven’t done any of this here.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Often enough. I think my first few fantasy stories in particular have a fantastic flow to them. Perk of editing them not twice but at least ten times before publishing.

 

[davion2308]

I have read some of my old stories and I feel like I've come a long way. I'm more patient, I take my time setting a story up before getting to the sex part, and my scores seem to be trending upward on average. Most of my "H" stories have been within the past few years vs. 15 years ago when I started writing here.

There are a number of stories I don't want to read at all because ... ick. But I'm getting better.