'Did I just write that?'

Coop720 · Aug 11, 2012

Do you ever write something and really like it, think it is brilliant and then leave it for a while to stew and then return to it like 3-4 months later, forgetting about it and think 'Wow, how the hell did I write that? Will I ever write anything like this again?!'

I both hate and love these moments. The part I hate is the dread that that will be your best writing and it has already passed.

Anyone else?

Lidiya · Aug 11, 2012

I think I have -- at creative writing sessions at school. Unfortunately, the teacher only ever makes me read my worst pieces :/
Sometimes I write something amazing at home, rush to show my parents...then read it over again and go, "Oh, God. What the hell have I created? This is horrible!"

Recently I found an old poem I wrote for homework when I was only 9. It's so GOOD for a little kid, that I seriously doubted I wrote it (but nah, it has my name on it at the bottom so I'm good). Well done little me!

angeliz2k · Aug 11, 2012

Yes. I've come back to some of my previous work and been pleasantly surprised. I really enjoy some of it. Of course, I always find things I want to fix, but it's encouraging to think, "Hey, I'm not so bad!"

I'm actually pretty impressed by some of the writing I did in high school. It's proficient and is oftentimes a lot more passionate than the work I write now.

Anninyn · Aug 11, 2012

Sometimes. To the extent that I often doubt it was an original thought and assume I accidentally ripped off someone else.

Justin Bossert · Aug 11, 2012

It happens to me, though not as much as I would like. It's as though another person takes over, writes something down and leaves it for me. Sometimes I feel as though it's too nice to fit into the story that I've written because the writing sucks in comparison.

ManOfTongues · Aug 11, 2012

I did that recently with a plot point in my latest novel. I wrote in this game-changing plot point, one that wasn't planned and then totally forgot about it when I wrote the remainder of the novel. I stumbled across it during the editing of my second draft and I was like "Holy cow, that's epic!" only to realize that I would have to tweak the rest of the novel to address and fit with that new point.

Lidiya · Aug 11, 2012

Justin Bossert said:
It happens to me, though not as much as I would like. It's as though another person takes over, writes something down and leaves it for me. Sometimes I feel as though it's too nice to fit into the story that I've written because the writing sucks in comparison.

*nods sadly* Me, too.

Coop720 · Aug 11, 2012

Justin Bossert said:
It happens to me, though not as much as I would like. It's as though another person takes over, writes something down and leaves it for me. Sometimes I feel as though it's too nice to fit into the story that I've written because the writing sucks in comparison.

I hate this more than anything haha Sometimes I just don't know when to let go!

I dread to think what my beta-readers are going to make me chuck

Augsburg's Writer · Aug 11, 2012

When I was in college, I started writing a novel. Unfortunately, I didn't know what I was doing and did not know enough about the the profession I was writing about. So it was not just lousy, but stinkin' horrific.

Today, I understand about research and the like and am writing more about what I am familiar with.

Tezzirax · Aug 11, 2012

If I start getting really right brained while I am writing all kinds of strange things happen that startle me, both in pleasing ways and in horrifying ways.

Sometimes a whole passage becomes a gnarled knot of starts and stops and redirections, yuck.

At other times I can't believe how much a character just came alive within me and made it onto the page so well.

IAMWRITER · Aug 11, 2012

Anything I ever wrote at school was a masterpiece at the time. Nowadays, I'm glad that I write at least a little better than that.

Safe to say, I've binned most of it, except from the "best" of it. Thats always good for a laugh!

Persei · Aug 11, 2012

The stories were awful. My English not so much. I was actually surprised about how nice my English was even a year ago...

But yea. I was awful.

LadyV · Aug 11, 2012

I read something I wrote about five years ago. I was amazed how good my descriptions were. Now I'm wondering what the hell happened.

Darrach · Aug 11, 2012

The only time I do this is not in a positive way. I usually think I did okay on something, then go back and it's so horrible, all I can think is "did I write that? I suck!"

Jamesaritchie · Aug 11, 2012

I don't leave something and return later. I start it, and I finish it before leaving it for any length of time.

But I have sold a few pieces that seem much better when I read them after a year or three or twenty. It does bother me. I sold two pieces two pieces about twenty years ago, a short story and an essay, and both of them still read better than anything I've written since.

scarletpeaches · Aug 11, 2012

Anninyn said:
Sometimes. To the extent that I often doubt it was an original thought and assume I accidentally ripped off someone else.

I do this sometimes too. I read something and think, "Nah, that's too good to be mine; I must be remembering a novel I read recently."

Which might sound terribly arrogant (oh look at me and my brilliant prose) but that's not what I mean. It's more like not trusting myself to be brilliant. I reckon I'm good, but I'm not that good. Yet.

But the above is an instant thing. Writing it, doubting myself, deleting and carrying on. I don't leave manuscripts for months and months. I finish the first draft and edit it straight away so it's done, done, done. Hell, by the end of the draft I'm sick of it, so I want it out the door ASAP!

Saoirse · Aug 11, 2012

All the time.

Ehjookayted · Aug 11, 2012

Definitely have had the feeling before. It's really cool to find an old essay or an old poem and reminisce on the good and the bad!

I really enjoy seeing myself grow as a writer and that's something I cherish. Those moments of nostalgia...

wannabe writing · Aug 11, 2012

Yea rereading older work is a bit hit or miss some of it should be shredded, burned and sealed in a vat of acid. Other bits remind me why I love writing.

MRevelle83 · Aug 12, 2012

Anninyn said:
Sometimes. To the extent that I often doubt it was an original thought and assume I accidentally ripped off someone else.

I understand this feeling. This is because one of my personal favorite pieces of writing... was a lousy fanfiction. Pre-edited quality anyway.

All myy other (original) old stuff is mostly hit or miss (of which my batting average makes me wanna weep).

CJ.Wolfe · Aug 12, 2012

Quite a lot actually. I'm only twenty, and still somewhat of an ammeter. My writing has improved vastly in the last few years, but there have been a couple of occasions where I've gone back through my writing box and have found some really good pieces.

There was one in year 10 that I wrote in my English exam that was so good, I spent the last half hour of the exam memorising it, and then next half hour out of the exam frantically re-writing it from memory before I forgot all the wording (we never get our exam papers back).

Makes me very exasperated with some of the stuff I write these days.

tko · Aug 12, 2012

aways

All the time. I'm continuous amazed by what I've written and how it ties together. Yes, I don't see how I'd ever do it again.

Now, if someone else would feel the same way . . .

Anninyn · Aug 12, 2012

scarletpeaches said:
I do this sometimes too. I read something and think, "Nah, that's too good to be mine; I must be remembering a novel I read recently."

Which might sound terribly arrogant (oh look at me and my brilliant prose) but that's not what I mean. It's more like not trusting myself to be brilliant. I reckon I'm good, but I'm not that good. Yet.

But the above is an instant thing. Writing it, doubting myself, deleting and carrying on. I don't leave manuscripts for months and months. I finish the first draft and edit it straight away so it's done, done, done. Hell, by the end of the draft I'm sick of it, so I want it out the door ASAP!

I keep thinking that one of my favourite bits of description was cribbed wholesale off someone else, but I'm not sure, and I'm too scared to google it in case I was right.

owlion · Aug 12, 2012

It's more that as I progress writing, I realise a lot of the stuff I started with is now redundant and I've got to alter it to fit... There are also very wordy sentences every so often (*more than every so often) which I have to squint at to work out what I was trying to say.

Libbie · Aug 12, 2012

Coop720 said:
Do you ever write something and really like it, think it is brilliant and then leave it for a while to stew and then return to it like 3-4 months later, forgetting about it and think 'Wow, how the hell did I write that? Will I ever write anything like this again?!'

I both hate and love these moments. The part I hate is the dread that that will be your best writing and it has already passed.

Anyone else?

Yeah, I have those moments. I still get teary-eyed over one scene I wrote two years ago that still strikes me as awesome, even after I've read it probably two dozen times during revisions.

Don't worry, your best writing is never past. It's always in the future.

And then I also have moments where I write a scene of a guy pooping behind a bush in the desert and examining the anatomy of a cricket while he does so, and I think, "Yeah, that could probably be cut without losing anything vital from the narrative."

So, you know.

'Did I just write that?'

Skimming galaxies

never mind the shorty

Stealing your twiglets.

Coffee, please.

Skimming galaxies

Still Writing with "Training Wheels

QWERTY!!!

Let it go

Tree Hugger

The Queen of Sweden

Mi verkas

Complication

Close your eyes and jump

just thanks fore everything

Stealing your twiglets.

Absorbing inspiration from the moon

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