Do you hate your writing?

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Vegos
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#16 Post by Vegos »

Yes. To the point I have, a few times, made the rather bad decision of striking old work from existance. Which is a bad idea, I'd say...in any case, yeah, my writing falls victim to "never good enough".

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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#17 Post by Writer16 »

As a writer, I like to see the flaws in my writings; whether that be grammatical errors, bad characterization, plot holes, and such. I like to learn from these mistakes. I don't hate my writings, but that doesn't mean I'm dissatisfied with them at times. I rather learn from my mistakes than hate them. Hatred never works for me as a writer. In my opinion, it's why a lot of beginner writers quit, or have a hard time regaining their focus.

Hey, I may be wrong now, as I'm wrong a lot of times, but what works for me might not work for anyone in the creative field and such.
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#18 Post by YonYonYon »

It's not like I hate my old writings, but I kinda do. In some face-palming way.

Like, I've actually finished a script for my first VN. But it was on paper and in Russian, so I didn't put it into Ren'Py for a long time. After I managed to do it to a part of my script, I was bafled with the quality of my story. I saw so many cliches and problematic tropes, I thought it would be too much work to edit the script.

At least I've got some experience! Now my writing isn't that bad, I'm even pretty good at dialogues.
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#19 Post by Gambit74 »

I actually find that I enjoyed my old works more than my current ones, even if they sounded cheesy/dated compared to how I write now. I guess it's because when I wrote those back then, I actually felt like I was writing with as much freedom as I could. Nowadays though I just feel kind of overwhelmed with current works because as I'm getting more and more into serious writing, I start to find different sets of rules on what to do and what not to do. It's not to say I should follow every rule exactly as it is in the book, but currently I don't feel talented enough to get away with breaking some of them.
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#20 Post by Ozitiho »

I'm still a beginner. I've been writing pretty much the same script for some years now, with some minor side projects, and whenever I look back at those it's hard to judge myself, because I know I'm shit. If anything I'm impressed at how some parts aren't even all that shit.

But I used to write short stories when I was a lot younger as part of a Harry Potter RPG forum... Just thinking about my ninja wizard with a demon dormant in his arm makes me cringe... I hope the forum is deleted so none of my old work exists.

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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#21 Post by Kuiper »

Gambit74 wrote:I actually find that I enjoyed my old works more than my current ones, even if they sounded cheesy/dated compared to how I write now. I guess it's because when I wrote those back then, I actually felt like I was writing with as much freedom as I could. Nowadays though I just feel kind of overwhelmed with current works because as I'm getting more and more into serious writing, I start to find different sets of rules on what to do and what not to do. It's not to say I should follow every rule exactly as it is in the book, but currently I don't feel talented enough to get away with breaking some of them.
If it feels like your newer works are less enjoyable, despite being better by some "objective" metric (as if such a thing existed), it could be that in striving to emulate other authors and "follow the rules," you are eliminating your own authorial voice. Your post brought to mind this anecdote from James A. Owen, and you might want to take the time to watch that panel in its entirety, as there might be something for you to take away from it.

That's not to say that it's bad or unnatural to experience "dips" in your own evolution as a writer. I think a lot of people in a lot of disciplines go through a phase where they starting off as someone who is "good at being bad," and they are trying to get to a point where they are "good at being good." But on the way, there's this intermediate phase, where they are "bad at being good": they're doing all of the "right" things, but their execution leaves a lot to be desired.

This often happens every time you try to adopt a new skill or technique in your writing. For example, you may be quite practiced and adept at writing in first-person viewpoint, and you then try to expand your craft and attempt writing third-person limited viewpoint. Your first several third-person stories turn out to be significantly worse than the first-person stories that you've written. At this point, you could say, "screw this, why should I spend time writing bad third-person stories when I could be writing good first-person stories," but in the long run I think you'll be better off if you "tough it out" and keep being bad at third-person viewpoint long enough to show some competence at it, because once you do, you'll have one more tool to add to your toolbox as a writer. You may even decide after becoming practiced at third-person viewpoint that you do want to go back to writing mostly first-person viewpoint stories, but you'll have the benefit of knowing that you're writing first-person because it's the best tool for the job, rather than "having" to use it because it's the only tool you have.
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#22 Post by Tentacles »

Ha starting to wonder if I worded the title the right way.

I guess that's the editor in me. Seems more crass than I intended.

To the above, yea I noticed then when first switching from first person to third person at first. I found in third I couldn't connect quite as well to the main character in third. But found it was easier to construct a plot around larger world issues.

I'm facing other changes with deliberate first person past and future tense switching. (So part of one short story briefly goes into two minutes in the future in a MCs personal pessimistic future prediction.)

Which takes it marginally into the world of science fiction.
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#23 Post by BreakingMachines »

I'm one of those writers who love coming up with ideas, and writing bits and pieces. I was also a bit of a perfectionist, so I tended to edited things like crazy. So I typically like my writing.

But just like anything that one likes or dislikes it depends, on the situation and context. Sometimes I look back at my old work and I'm absolutely impressed with some aspect or stylistic choice that I used in it that I really don't use anymore. Other times, I find myself cringing, when I look back. Because the dialogue is choppy or forced, or the narration sounds forced, the tenses are all over the place, there's stereotypes and tropes littered everywhere, logical fallacies, or sometimes the actions of the characters are just unbelievable and unrealistic. Sometimes I stumble upon gems, that I wish I could still write now, but I've moved on from that style of writing.

Most of the time, I tend to still like my work. But I'll start to notice problems I never noticed before, and I generally like fixing them for the sake of completion, and for a sense of pride. And sometimes I may even rewrite them and update them. It's really difficult to look at something you've invested a lot of time with, and not feel even a slight bit of positive feelings for it. I think this stems from my sense of nostalgia I feel for old works in any medium even if it's awful. But in general I keep all my works because it's a testament about my improvement, and it helped me understand my characters at that point in my life.
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#24 Post by Fox Lee »

Yes and no. I read my old stuff occasionally, and some of it is super garbage, but for a lot of it I can still see the potential, and pick out the flaws pretty well. I figure that's a healthy place to be!
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#25 Post by Genesis »

There are some times when I would look at my past writing pieces and laugh at how cliche and ridiculous they are. Most of them were pretty recent though (around one or two years ago). Either way, I'm sure everyone has to start somewhere so I just see them as learning experiences now. :)
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#26 Post by Kikaharu »

I love going back and looking at my old writings. I wanted to be an author since I was 8 and almost 21 now. And I'll go back and notice mistakes and things that can be changed. Also I think why did I write that but I don't hate it. And I still love the world I was making if I can even remember it but it's like it needs an update which is natural. I learned that writing isn't about writing a perfect story. It's about writing and editing and fixing and rewriting and so on. Many things change but surely if you kept going you'll get a nice polished story.

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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#27 Post by ladynamoru »

When I was young I used to write stories on my notebook. that I kept till now....(damn I feel old)
when I check those notebooks now...most of them are color yellow (signs of their age)
I also notice how cliche those stories and how cheesy the lines are to the point that my head screams (WHAT AM I THINKING WRITING THIS KIND STORY?!! ARGHHH!!!)

Im a sort of a Perfectionist even back then so I remember how many times I rewrite those stories in order for me to be contented with what am I writing.

But I have to admit that some of those works have potential once polished and I realized that my taste in fiction have'nt changed that much

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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#28 Post by akareed »

As everyone above have mentioned, being 'regretful' of your past works is natural for any type of creator.
Everyone has a different way of dealing with it, but if you know what's bugging you the most on your past works you may be able to use that knowledge to level up!
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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#29 Post by Keryee »

For me, I seem to end up disliking all of my work that's older than two months! When I look back at my work, it's hard not to cringe...

That said, it's best to think about these things positively! When you think your old work is no good, it's because you've grown so much as an artist!

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Re: Do you hate your writing?

#30 Post by Yolo400 »

Writing is too exhausting. I hate writing, but not my written work.
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