Reading Old Fic

[rynling]

On one hand, I'm like, I can't believe I wrote this.

On the other hand, I'm like, I can't believe I wrote this.

I am both impressed with my younger self and terribly embarrassed of her typos, stylistic errors, repetitiveness, and unconscious adherence to sexist genre conventions. Sheesh.

Comments

[lassarina]

that's always such a weird thing for me.

Most of my stuff within the last five years doesn't offend me as much though. XD

[rynling]

It's been a bizarre experience going back and editing my old work; bizarre not only because it's like reading the work of another writer, but also because it's so easy to make it better (especially in terms of sexist tropes) that I can't help but wonder why professional writers aren't capable of the same level of editing. Seriously, most of the "editing" I'm doing is just deleting stuff, which is the easiest thing in the world.

Your work is awesome, though. Tbh, it's one of the reasons I bribed a friend of mine for an access code to AO3. I don't use this screen name on that site, but you'll probably be able guess who I am when you start getting kudos from someone with an FFVI avatar. I've been working my way through my pet fandoms on AO3, and I'm saving Final Fantasy for last.

[lassarina]

Oh, thank you! That's very nice of you to say. :)

Yeah, I have some of that in my older work too, but I think the problem is that sometimes when an author gets to a certain fame level, his/her editor no longer challenges him/her to improve, and--especially with *isms, it can be difficult to point that out in a way that doesn't result in shouting.