Reading Your Own Stuff

I'm the opposite: I can't stand reading stuff I've published because I see things I want to change even though it's too late to fix them.

I'm stuck just reading mine in manuscript form, because nobody else will.

caw

I read over anything to make certain nothing got changed, honestly. I once had an article accepted but the one published (under my by-line) had a completely different last third, which came to a completely different conclusion than the one I'd been aiming for (and one I vehemently opposed). A few heated calls to the editor later, I got a verbal apology but nothing ever in print. For several years, while I was still in that line of work, I got backlash from that article. At least, having read it, I knew why and was ready for it.

Yeah, I read it when it first comes to my hands. Then I read it again, just to be certain of what I read the first time. And then maybe again, 'cause the third time's the charm. Then if it's not butchered, I'll read it as a reader at least once or twice, just 'cause.

Fortunately, I've never had the same situation I did above, but I don't think it's weird to read your own stuff multiple times. I think it's good mojo.

Bubastes said:

I'm the opposite: I can't stand reading stuff I've published because I see things I want to change even though it's too late to fix them.

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Yep, I hear you. I only take a cursory look at my published work, afraid I'll find flaws that can't be fixed if it's in a print magazine. If it's online, I email the editor right away if it was their error.

Unless an editor or a reader remarks how much they enjoyed it, then and only then I'll reread it a few times.

Bubastes said:

I'm the opposite: I can't stand reading stuff I've published because I see things I want to change even though it's too late to fix them.

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I'm the same way. I am, by nature, never completely satisfied with my work, so when I look back at something I can't help wanting to tinker.

I tend to read just once. Get a mag that's published one of my stories, I'll read it to see if it's how I remembered it. Because with lit mags, you often aren't seeing the print until at least a year since you subbed the story. After that, it has to go and hide in the suitcase in the coat closet.

I get magazines/newspapers/newsletters, etc with my stuff in them and I just file them. I don't even open the magazine to the page half the time. I like freelancing...but once it's out of the pen, I really don't take it any further. I just move to the next thing. I got a contributor copy of a magazine yesterday...I opened the manila envelope enough to get at the cheque, then I threw it on my desk. The magazine didn't come out of the envelope.

I'll reread obsessively before something is finished, but once it is, I don't have much of a desire to go back through it again. I already know everything that I'm going to find, and if there happens to be something I wish was different, being too late to do anything about it only serves to ruin my mood.

Bubastes said:

I'm the opposite: I can't stand reading stuff I've published because I see things I want to change even though it's too late to fix them.

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Me too. Fiction at least. Nonfiction I'll read over and enjoy but my fiction makes me cringe and wish I could grab it all back and start revising it.

I don't really do that on published stuff - a once-over to see if there are any typos - but I find myself re-reading compulsively any time anyone else reads and comments on my work.

What I mean is, for example, I submit a chapter to my writing group. There are 3 other people and they all read and make notes on their printouts and then give them to me.

Now, I can't just look over their notes and make changes on my master copy. I have to sit down and read all three printouts. For each one, as I read, I am putting myself in that person's head (or trying to) and looking at my work as they see it. Does everything still make sense through their eyes? Does anything look weird or off? Is anything misinterpreted?

It's not just writing group, either. If my grandma reads something and tells me she likes it, I'll sit down and re-read, putting myself in my grandma's shoes.

... still draw satisfaction in seeing myself in print, after 6 years of steady publication. So I read through my pub'd pieces once then file them away. This also allows me to evaluate my pieces one last time, enabling me to avoid the same pitfalls or duplicate the positives next time around.

I read all of my unpublished stories probably at least a few times a month, just to enjoy them. The published ones don't get the same attention, maybe once or twice a year, and even then it's from my files, not the magazine. Those I look over once or twice when they arrive just to make sure there are no glaring errors (if there are, I make a mental note not to submit there again), then file them away.

Nicole

dgiharris said:

So,

Is this just me?

And is this more of a 'newbie' thing. Are you seasoned veterans immune from this narcassistic tendency?

Mel...

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Not a newbie thing; it varies from author to author.

Usually, by the time I've written, revised, gone over the copy edit, and then galleys -- sometimes two passes -- I'm so sick of a book I think I'll never open it again.

Then I'm holding the book, properly covered or jacketed and as it will appear to readers out there and, usually, I find the time to read it in the weeks after it's first published.

I almost always find mistakes I missed in all the other passes, or at least half a dozen things I wish I'd done differently.

But if I can still make it all the way through to the end without flinching too many times, I figure it's an okay book.

Want a more objective opinion, ask me to read it again after I've written two or three more.

I love reading my fanfics

Some parts, anyway.

I check my published stories to see that they look pretty, but I've never read through one. It's kind of like, this bird has flown from the nest, and now it's on its own!

I can see why you'd want to read your own stuff. I'd be like 'oh, I should have done this, or I should have wrote the sentence that way instead...' Congrats on having anything that's published that you get to read in the first palce!

When I wrote news for local papers and the wire services, I kept huge scrapbooks of all the articles published, especially if I had a byline. Even the ad layouts I did, I saved.

If I'm ever published as a fiction author, I'll no doubt read and re-read everything. Then again, I may be the only one who buys it.