*Facepalm*

[Brigid_Mo_Chroi]

You ever do that thing where you stay up half the night writing something you think is brilliant only to get up the next day to read it and realize it's crap? Now I'm cranky and sleep deprived with nothing to show for it.

 

[estragon]

You ever do that thing where you stay up half the night writing something you think is brilliant only to get up the next day to read it and realize it's crap? Now I'm cranky and sleep deprived with nothing to show for it.

And even if you don't realize it's crap (or maybe are quite sure it isn't), some troll will come along and decide that it is.

 

[Brigid_Mo_Chroi]

And even if you don't realize it's crap (or maybe are quite sure it isn't), some troll will come along and decide that it is.

Lol yeah. Though I will admit most of the response I've gotten from what I have managed to submit has been pretty positive. Even the more negative comments have been filled with constructive criticism. So far anyway.

I'm just eager to take what I've learned and apply it to something new. But that's easier said than done.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've done the opposite, I've written while fairly well lit and the next day I'm always amazed that barring some typos its usually pretty good.

 

[mythtrav16]

You ever do that thing where you stay up half the night writing something you think is brilliant only to get up the next day to read it and realize it's crap? Now I'm cranky and sleep deprived with nothing to show for it.

I've just done something kind of similar - staying up all night (time I could've been using to write!) trying to fix a nuisance glitch on a PC, got nowhere slowly, and in all likelihood, just made the whole thing glitchier in the process.

Sometimes, I think Shakespeare was really on to something with that whole "quill" method.

 

[Brigid_Mo_Chroi]

I've done the opposite, I've written while fairly well lit and the next day I'm always amazed that barring some typos its usually pretty good.

I do manage to impress myself now and then, but no matter what at the end of the day I tend to be my own worst critic.

 

[sr71plt]

My "what were you thinking?" writing is usually done in the afternoon. My "late-night-with-a-couple-of-glasses-of-Yelowtail-Shiraz" writing usually turns out better than I expected.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

You ever do that thing where you stay up half the night writing something you think is brilliant only to get up the next day to read it and realize it's crap? Now I'm cranky and sleep deprived with nothing to show for it.

And don't forget that when you look at it after getting no sleep, you might not have the best mindset for looking at your work.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning, and at 4:30, decided that getting up and writing was better than staring at the ceiling. By 6:30 when I went back to bed, I was convinced the last two hours would have been better spent staring at the ceiling.

But after looking at it a bit this afternoon (after a nice, long nap), I've decided that it's not as bad as I thought. Yes, entire chunks need to meet the delete key, huge sections need major editing, and still other parts need to be moved to either earlier or later scenes . . . but it's better than having written nothing at all.

So pat yourself on the back for making the effort, take a nap, and look again. I promise it's not as bad as you think.

 

[Brigid_Mo_Chroi]

And don't forget that when you look at it after getting no sleep, you might not have the best mindset for looking at your work.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning, and at 4:30, decided that getting up and writing was better than staring at the ceiling. By 6:30 when I went back to bed, I was convinced the last two hours would have been better spent staring at the ceiling.

But after looking at it a bit this afternoon (after a nice, long nap), I've decided that it's not as bad as I thought. Yes, entire chunks need to meet the delete key, huge sections need major editing, and still other parts need to be moved to either earlier or later scenes . . . but it's better than having written nothing at all.

So pat yourself on the back for making the effort, take a nap, and look again. I promise it's not as bad as you think.

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely look at it later with clearer eyes.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

Seconding Tatyana. At the very least, even if you don't like it later, hang onto it. You may be able to salvage something out of it later.

 

[lovecraft68]

Seconding Tatyana. At the very least, even if you don't like it later, hang onto it. You may be able to salvage something out of it later.

Good advice.

I never toss anything. I have a folder on my laptop named "Remnants" I have everything from conversations I never used to random sex scenes and a couple of fight scenes.

I've pasted more than one of these into a larger work, so I keep everything.

 

[Darkniciad]

My folder is called "Half-Baked" but I do the same.

I don't keep everything, though. I've sometimes backspaced entire scenes and sent them into the ether. There's often a backup saved that I end up shunting into the drafts folder when I finish something, though. I dig through those scrapped drafts and my half-baked folder every so often looking for gems I've forgotten about that just needed time to simmer or polish that wasn't coming to me at the time.

 

[Brigid_Mo_Chroi]

I still need sleep (which I'm about to get soon and it should be good since it's a nice rainy night). I did get away and then come back to look at what I had written again and realized the beginning was quite good. I identified the part where things weren't up to my expectations. It wasn't even badly written, it just lacked something. A rewrite of that part should do the trick and the get the story moving in the direction intended. I will of course, attend to that tomorrow. Glad I didn't scrap it. Thanks for the sanity check, guys. As for that sleep, I'm about to go grab it now. Sweet naughty dreams y'all.