Can you read your early writing without cringing?

I keep all my young writings in a folder called "Old, Bad Writing." Looking at it now the word "bad" is nowhere near strong enough.

I picked "other," because even though I can read my early writing without cringing, I am the first to admit I did not even know what a quill was when I first started writing.

A crayon, maybe. But a quill? No.

I have the third story I ever wrote. I've never seen so many exclamation points or all-caps words in my life.

Sample dialogue: "FINE!!! I'll arrange a meeting with Mr. Martin about your behavior, oh, and just so you know, I have the right to take away my free coffee deal to you, GOT THAT!?!?!?!"

It's great. But seriously, I have a hard time looking at the stuff I wrote a couple years ago, because I was Incredibly Serious about that stuff.

I just finished my first novel. And personally, I think its awesome. It's in the hands of the first agent now.

Time will tell if it will make me cringe one day.

Barb D said:

I just finished my first novel. And personally, I think its awesome. It's in the hands of the first agent now.

Time will tell if it will make me cringe one day.

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Good luck!!!

Keep in mind that I'm 17, almost 18, so "early" is ages 10-13. Most of my early writing wasn't horrible, but it definitely wasn't very good. Good considering my age at the time, but still not very good. I think the biggest problem was the dialogue. In any case, I could definitely tell that I've improved.

The first half of my novel, which I started when I was 14, is going to need a lot f revising and rewriting. The second half (so far) is actually not too bad, though there are definitely weak areas that I need to fix later.

However, my recent writing is not so good because I had to take a long break from writing during the school year. It's very thin and not very descriptive.

No. I love my early stuff. It's the stuff I'm writing now I can't stand. Seems I've gotten worse the more I've learned.

Barb D said:

I just finished my first novel. And personally, I think its awesome. It's in the hands of the first agent now.

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Congrats. I hate you. First novel already with an agent. Harumph!

Shadow_Ferret said:

No. I love my early stuff. It's the stuff I'm writing now I can't stand. Seems I've gotten worse the more I've learned.



Congrats. I hate you. First novel already with an agent. Harumph!

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No, no, no. With an agent, as in I'm trying to get an agent. The particular one I sent it to as an exclusive wants the entire manuscript with the submission.

I love the mad improbablity of the stories I wrote as a kid. (My mom kept everything.) The let me die, let me die "poetry" of my teenage years got burned a few years ago. But I have paper copies of most everything I've written since then. Some of it is cringeworthy, some may get rewritten, but it's a map of where I've been so I keep it.

Shoot, I cringe over stuff I wrote six months ago. I don't need to go all the way back to childhood to find stuff that embarrasses me.

god no. lol. i have put all my early writings at the bottom of a box, never to see the light of day again. lol. i used to get it out every once in a blue moon and try and read it but just...no. lol. its sooo bad.

And on a different note, i also cringe at Colin Farell. I will never forgive him for taking the role of Alexander. *shudders*

lovesaphira said:

And on a different note, i also cringe at Colin Farell. I will never forgive him for taking the role of Alexander. *shudders*

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He redeemed himself in In Bruges.

He and Jared Leto - along with Angelina Jolie and Jonathon Rhys Meyers - couldn't save Alexander from reaching epic heights of fail, but I still love them.

I can't even look at my current work without cringing.

In a word: No.

lovesaphira said:

god no. lol. i have put all my early writings at the bottom of a box, never to see the light of day again. lol. i used to get it out every once in a blue moon and try and read it but just...no. lol. its sooo bad.

And on a different note, i also cringe at Colin Farell. I will never forgive him for taking the role of Alexander. *shudders*

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You criticised Colin Farrell.

You are now on my list.

When reading nonfiction stuff I wrote for a newletter, I sometimes think "I wrote that? Damn that's deep." When I read the 25 or so short stories I've written over the years, I think it's a shame I didn't follow through with most of them.

When it comes to my current novel, I can definitely see improvement from the earlier versions. I don't cringe too much. I even have the ever-changing versions of select chapters just to see how the story has progressed over the years. And I figure, if the book becomes a best seller...it might be interesting to see how the book transformed into its published version. That's when the real cringing starts.

I only have about 15 years worth of "early writing." If it's from, like, a year ago beyond, I cringe. Majorly. I also laugh at it. But, stuff I've written in the last year--stuff that almost made me throw up while I was writing it--I reread and think, "Hey, this isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was."

...

Crap! Does that mean I'm an egotist?? *faints*

I don't cringe so much at my old prose stylings as at my subject matter. Let's just say Deforrest Kelly fanfic is not a pretty thing...

scarletpeaches said:

You criticised Colin Farrell.

You are now on my list.

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Is that a...bad thing? hehe

lovesaphira said:

Is that a...bad thing? hehe

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Trust me...you don't want to be on that list.

It took me six months of pleading, forty-seven megabytes of pics of sexy celebrities, and three novels written per her exact demands to get me off that list, and my offense was far lesser than insulting Colin.

... depends on how you define 'cringe.' If by this you mean screaming out at the top of your lungs, "Ah, the horror of it," and then clutching at one's hair and giving it sporadic tugs, then yes: I indeed do cringe when perusing early stuff I've written.