Neriad13
Premium Member
I recently went through the contents of an old thumb drive and was shocked to discover hundreds of pages of things I'd written in the past and even more blown away by what a treasure trove of ideas they were. I tend not to look at my old stuff too often, thinking of it as inferior and blindly charging ahead to write something better. I've even gone so far as to leave behind old stories and poems and whatnot whenever I got a new computer.
But I did find a lot of genuinely good, creative stuff that's worth keeping. The experience wasn't without its cringe-worthy moments, though. A couple stories had me going "Oh, ick. The heck did I write that in first-person?" or "Why is this narrative so rushed?" or "Holy crap, just stop narrating and tell the story" or "Ugh, I would've done that more subtly if I'd written that today."
Of particular interest was this one unfinished short story whose main character was a girl who spoke almost entirely in Old English...in a modern-day High School setting. It was so hilarious to read and ridiculously over the top. I'm almost tempted to go back and finish that one, just to write some more for this one character. The funny thing is, I remember thinking the story was stupid at the time I was writing it.
What's your relationship with your old writings?
But I did find a lot of genuinely good, creative stuff that's worth keeping. The experience wasn't without its cringe-worthy moments, though. A couple stories had me going "Oh, ick. The heck did I write that in first-person?" or "Why is this narrative so rushed?" or "Holy crap, just stop narrating and tell the story" or "Ugh, I would've done that more subtly if I'd written that today."
Of particular interest was this one unfinished short story whose main character was a girl who spoke almost entirely in Old English...in a modern-day High School setting. It was so hilarious to read and ridiculously over the top. I'm almost tempted to go back and finish that one, just to write some more for this one character. The funny thing is, I remember thinking the story was stupid at the time I was writing it.
What's your relationship with your old writings?