Our old stories ...

[boosette]

I'm in the middle of re-archiving everything from my fanfiction.net account to a wordpress at my domain (so I can justify the expense - it's just not worth the $10/month if all I do is host an LJ moodtheme), and I am absolutely cringing at most of my old stories. I'm absolutely not the same person I was when I wrote them, and while I strive for completeness (everything should be there: including the warts), there are some things I wish I could make disappear*.

I also wish I had been less prolific.

How do you feel about your old stories?


*One thing I am removing is all trace of the OC who, along with her OC family, I retooled into an original universe I may eventually seek to publish.

[Rojo]

*shudders*

Please, they have hardly improved at all! I am forced to re-face the terror everytime I update something...

[boosette]

I had a phase where everything was AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGST AND WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOE

[opalgirl]

My old fic that's online isn't in this fandom (yay), but I can agree with this sentiiment. (Ugh. No. Do not want my fifteen-year-old crazy shipper self.)

I handwrote what Pierce-fic I did write before last year and it was the following:

- Written by me when I was no older than 14
- Mostly written with little-to-no-knowledge of the PoTS books.
- Really, really, really BAD Circleverse.
- Got lost in the course of a couple of moves.

Also, angst and wooooooooooooooooooe, Candice? Yep.

[boosette]

- Really, really, really BAD Circleverse.

omg. Was it Circleship? Who/Who?

I myself also wrote a LOT of Daine/Numair.

[opalgirl]

Apr 28, 2009 12:11:41 GMT 10 @boosette said:

- Really, really, really BAD Circleverse.

omg. Was it Circleship? Who/Who?

I myself also wrote a LOT of Daine/Numair.

No. I never got into Circleship. I think they know each other far too well for romance. (There's a particular scene in WoTE where it definitely confirms it for me - I won't be writing Circleship.)

It was just BAD Circlefic in general.

And Daine/Numair. Ahaha. Yes. Before I got my own copy of ROTG, you do not want to know how many times I had that book from the library. For one scene, too.

[boosette]

Guess where my crease is. Guess.

Yep, it's *there* (RotG was the first book which had true and proper making of the out and it really, really helped that Numair was my ideal vision of manhood when I was 15/16. He's still responsible for my tendency toward socially awkward geeky types. (he is totally socially awkward, he just hides it well.))

[opalgirl]

Apr 28, 2009 12:19:57 GMT 10 @boosette said:

Guess where my crease is. Guess.

Yep, it's *there* (RotG was the first book which had true and proper making of the out and it really, really helped that Numair was my ideal vision of manhood when I was 15/16. He's still responsible for my tendency toward socially awkward geeky types. (he is totally socially awkward, he just hides it well.))

Hehe. Geeky guys are adorable. And Numair is awkward and a dork, but he's really sweet. (Kel even says so.) *will not turn this into the 'we <3 Numair' thread*

Also, the end of EM. Another book I had from the library hundreds of times for one section.

[anilaurel]

I love geeks. I had the entire immortals series on my library hold list because I always read them.

I havan't been writing for long, but I still hate my first stories. They had no grammar or anything good really.

[Lindsay]

I'm lucky that I had a tendency for multi-chaptered fics! Less to be embarrassed about since it's all contained to a few fics.

I have deleted one fic though-- but it needed to be deleted. For one thing, it broke the no script rules, and for another, it was a SELF INSERT TORTALLAN REALITY SHOW. Starring me as the host and Kat as one of the judges. Thing was atrocious, and will never see the light of day again.

[Anaroriel]

Luckily for me, most of my godawful fics were when I was writing LotR fanfiction... which I did not archive on ff.net. I think I deleted one or two of them anyway.

I mean, there are a couple of fics that aren't the most sophisticated pieces of writing you'll ever see, but they're not that cringe-worthy, IMO. They definitely need a little reworking definitely.

Actually... *goes to actually look* There's one or two I'd love to delete, but I won't let myself. >< I'm a masochist.

[Katty]

And Daine/Numair.

Ewwwwwwwww!!!!!

[lhazel]

I'm too appalled to even try reading my old stuff. I don't even want to know if it's as bad as I remember it being. It's just all so... reactionary. I still need to curb the desire to write fic in response to other fic, but not too long ago I just gleefully embraced it. My old original fic makes me cringe even more. Why did I let people read this?

[Lisa]

My writing probably hasn't improved that much since the eighth grade, so I'm not really concerned about reading my old stuff - I'm just not interested in the fandom. I did an "annotated fic" project for the first one I ever published, and it was a lot of fun. I might do more in the future on my fic-journal.

What really irritates me is looking at the stuff my sister and I wrote a LOOONG time ago, before we found fandom and we thought we were the ONLY people in the world writing Little Women stories. Hers still are amazing and mine are painful.

[rubberduck]

I believe I only ever wrote one fic, and I somehow deleted it from FF.net and then it got lost in my computer somewhere! So I don't even know where to look for it if I did want to read it again!

[Rosie]

Anything before 2004 is too painful for me to look at again; it sort of hides at the bottom of my ff.n page. I'm too sentimental to delete it, but too embarrassed to look at it again. Kat recently disabused me of the fond notion that everybody else just pretends it isn't there too. I improved from 2001-2004 markedly, but don't think I've improved since 2004, really.

[Lisa]

I improved from 2001-2004 markedly, but don't think I've improved since 2004, really.

It's much easier when you don't improve at all.

[Anaroriel]

I feel like I haven't improved as a writer since I was 17, so four years of not improving. Actually, sometimes I feel like my writing has gotten worse since then, but it's probably because I'm out of practice.

I think most of my best writing was two years ago, actually.

[Katty]

Kat recently disabused me of the fond notion that everybody else just pretends it isn't there too.

What else are friends for?

[rainstormamaya]

I have so much old fic on Fanfiction.net it's absurd. Partly because I can't be bothered to spend time going through and getting rid of it, partly because I have a not-terribly-secret yen to hit 100 fics, and partly because, well, as archives go it's not bad. Also, some people still seem to enjoy them. I've been writing and posting fanfic since 2006, and I've definitely improved a lot (as anyone who was subjected to my fanfiction around then can attest!) Joining the Dove and coming into contact with a lot of very good writers, which produced a certain amount of wide-eyed awe in me, brought on a very steep learning curve to which I probably owe a large part of my ability to write now.

But you know the worst thing? I'm prolific to the point of being ridiculous. My imagination requires a straitjacket, a gag and manacles, and has done for a long time, and I tend to act on plotbunnies almost immediately- so there's a lot of cringeworthy fanfic around. *headdesk*

[Strapless]

Like May, I didn't start posting any fic until 2006, right about the time I joined the Dove. Looking back on it, that was my hardcore Miri/Evin romance phase. Now I have a more difficult time seeing the pairing beyond anything platonic, even going so far as to pair Miri with another minor character. I'll attribute that to time, age, and experience.

I think (hope!) the writing has improved, even if the subject matter and format hasn't changed much. (Hey, there's a reason my username is 'onetrickponies' in places where 'Strapless' was unavailable!) One day I will write a multi-chapter fic...one day.

Perhaps worse to look back on is the stuff that I didn't subject to the public, and maybe that was subconsiously for good reason! There's nothing outside the Pierce fandom that's left my harddrive for FF.net posting--a Pern fic for NaNoWriMo, some PotC drabbles, even a little ill-advised Harry Potter from a looooong time ago. I do have a Tortall-verse multi-chapter I'd been working on-and-off since 2001, lovingly referred to as my monster-fic. I may or may not have bitten off more than I could chew with that one, and I have an irrational determination to finish the epic thing.

Ironically, my most popular fic on FF.net to date is the very first I ever posted.

[Maia]

I have a lot of old stuff posted on ff.net and on my LJ (though some of the extremely heinous stuff I did delete about a year ago). I'd like to say that I improved, at least from my first writing up until now, though I think since tenth/eleventh grade on, any improvement has been slow, if it's occurred at all.

My worst stuff was definitely before I was familiar with fandom - when I was just writing LotR and HP self-insert stories for myself. I found them a couple years ago, and I considered sporking them on Deleterius myself.