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Jun. 14th, 2005 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Just inspired by my fear of re-reading older stuff, when I went back and re-read a story I'd written about 5 years ago and it wasn't anything like as bad as I worried it would be...
[Poll #512664]
Comments also welcome in greater length.
[Poll #512664]
Comments also welcome in greater length.
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Date: 2005-06-14 09:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 10:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 09:58 pm (UTC)And if you do that, where do you stop? Do you *ever* stop? Are you trapped in a perpetual re-write hell from which there is no escape ever? Eeep! :P
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Date: 2005-06-15 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 10:21 am (UTC)Mostly, though, and particularly with the light fluffy pieces, once it's up, that's it. Althought I have to confess I sometimes go and read things because someone will make a comment about something that I can't remember having written. Getting old and senile ;-)
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Date: 2005-06-14 10:00 pm (UTC)To which my response to said fic would probably be 'die in a corner, you fiends!' rather than re-writing them. But that's just me... ;)
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Date: 2005-06-14 01:14 pm (UTC);-)
Seriously, though-- it does depress me when I've spent time and effort on a story and the only comment someone has is a complaint about editing.
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Date: 2005-06-14 10:01 pm (UTC)Is that better or worse than the stunned silence? You know, the one where you post something and then watch the tumbleweed blow across the list as everyone looks at each other and wonders what to say? ;)
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Date: 2005-06-14 02:49 pm (UTC)Until very recently I wasn't happy for any of my zine stories to go on-line. However, I have finally allowed three of my older Pros stories to go to the Circuit Archive. I did actually run these by my usual editor before they went up and although as I was going through them my fingers did itch a little to rewrite them, I forced myself not to on the grounds that 'why rewrite something I've already written'?
Yes, there were things I'd do differently if I were writing the stories today, but stories to me show the development of the writer, and I actually think it's quite interesting to see how a writer has changed, not always I have to say for the better, throughout her/his writing 'career'.
When I get a the trib copy of a zine in which my story appears I do quite often think 'oops, I should have said so and so,', but should I ever decide to put more of my stories online, I certainly won't change them before they go up, and once up I won't fiddle with them. I want to write new stories, not go back and rewrite what I've already written.
But I certainly do re-read my stuff, maybe that sound narcissistic, but after all if a writer doesn't read her/his own writing, how can she/he expect other people to? :-)
Also, I write the kind of stuff I like to read, which means whether it's established relationship (my favourite) or first time stories a good ninety-eight percent of the time the conflict will mainly, if not all, be external to the couple. Plus, in first time stories there's little agonising over 'should we/shouldn't we', etc. and once they've crossed that line, that's it, it's rare for me to then have them 'oh, but we shouldn't do this, it was a one off', kind of thing. Therefore, if I'm really in the mood for this kind of thing, and although these are my favourite kinds of stories, I don't only read them, I know that I can always fall back on my own stories.
What a long ramble to explain the short answer: yes, I re-read; no, I don't re-edit :-) Sorry!
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Date: 2005-06-14 10:06 pm (UTC)So it sounds like you're kind of doing the same thing as me, just over a slightly longer time frame. Usually I put up my timed-out stuff without a whimper but this time round we were talking about a 3 year gap instead of a year and I would hope that I've improved as a writer over that period, hence the trauma. ;)
But I certainly do re-read my stuff, maybe that sound narcissistic, but after all if a writer doesn't read her/his own writing, how can she/he expect other people to? :-)
Well, I admit (as I've said in another post here) to always rushing to read my fic in a new zine first, and then I'll read stuff when I code it since I code my own site, and I might pick up the zine again later on since it's *there* and my fic is part of it. But I don't go out of my way to re-read my stuff when there's other stuff out there to be discovered... not because I think my stuff is so crap (because then why inflict it on other people?) but because I know how those work out and want to hear other people's stories. Does that make any sense?
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Date: 2005-06-15 10:04 am (UTC)I fully understand this. Most writers do improve as they go (as long as they care about their writing and want to improve), so yes, there is always trauma involved when people 'see' your earlier stuff :-) Mind you, that could happen just as easily in zines as with web stuff. People do buy older zines when they get into a fandom. Mind you, that's different in a way, isn't it? Because we don't have the option of changing the zine stories, so it's 'out of our hands', whereas going onto the web.....
But I don't go out of my way to re-read my stuff when there's other stuff out there to be discovered... not because I think my stuff is so crap (because then why inflict it on other people?) but because I know how those work out and want to hear other people's stories. Does that make any sense?
It makes perfect sense. I tend to re-read my own stuff when I want to know how things work out, when I want that 'safety' factor, for want of a better word. Or simply when I want 'my' kind of story and I can't instantly put my hand on someone else who'll give me that. It's not as though I re-read my stuff all the time. Like you I rush to read it when I get the new zine, but then it's usually some time before I re-read it.
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Date: 2005-06-14 04:42 pm (UTC)Yea, yea....I know, dorky newbie fic writer.
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Date: 2005-06-14 10:02 pm (UTC)I have to say, I always read my fics in zines first when I get the trib copy, and sometimes when I'm coding stuff or re-reading zines I'll come across something and stop, thinking 'wow, however did I come up with that?'. That's a nice feeling.
So, not that dorky, honest! And keep writing, so you can see how it feels... ;)
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Date: 2005-06-14 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 01:34 pm (UTC)Or I just need to remember that my writing doesn't suck. :)
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Date: 2005-06-14 08:06 pm (UTC)So I have to let it go.
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Date: 2005-06-14 10:09 pm (UTC)I think that would be my fear, that I would re-read the older stuff and go 'OMG I suck!!111!!!' and make myself re-write stuff that probably doesn't deserve my time being spent on it when I could be writing new stuff the production of which would please me more... or something.