I have been writing a long time now (since 1991)… so I have a pretty expansive collection of bits and bobs… novels and short stories and fanfictions.
And I have to say it’s a bit painful to go back and read some of my early work… Even my most recent fanfictions have what I would consider egregious writing errors these days. I can’t even look at them, even when I get that occasional attaboy about how “good” they are.
That feeling when… right?
Well I’m doing an initial read through of the fourth novel in the Michael Universe (Saying No) and realizing just how much work I have to do to get it up to par. This story was originally written in the early aughts and it has 25 chapters written (and yet the story was never wrapped up!!)… yet I’m not sure just how much of these I can actually use as is. The overarching storyline has changed drastically since this was written, so I’m concerned about the overhaul I have ahead of me!!
That’s always a concern with early work.
But late work will have issues, too. Like I started 8 ONC attempts. Most of thrm are decent enough to not need that kind of work, but some of them could use some holy water, something.
Well at least with a new work you can claim it as a draft, because they often need editing…
But at one time I thought the older works were GREAT STUFF! LOL!
The problem is the next lens is the disappointment lens. It’s the 3rd one we need, where it’s no longer personal…
Disappointed sees that it’s not the the most epic thing and wants to throw out mediocre work as pure trash, when in reality, most decent books are these pearls of perfect moments strung together by mediocrity. It’s not really about how to fix this up to my current standard, but how to salvage this as workable.