It's a bit weird really, for one reason or another I find myself revisiting some of my scribbling from 'back in da day'.
Problem is I find myself deeply engrossed in the stories and what should have been a quick check of story facts turns into re reading whole chapters and even books. Worse than that, I find myself laughing and chuckling at my own writing!
Is this normal? Should I enjoy reading my own stuff? Is it really okay to laugh at my own jokes (well the ones delivered by my characters)?
Most of the fiction in my 'library' get read time and again - some are well into double figures. The good ones, the ones I really enjoy may well have me chuckling along but that's okay because someone else wrote them, right?
But enjoying reading wot I rit is like rong rite? Dis cuss.
Mads
Comments
On Literary Narcissism
Maddy,
I think a lot of us do it. When we write, we write stories that we enjoy. We share them, and hope others enjoy them just as much. We all have favourite books that we go back to again and again, so why shouldn't we also go back and enjoy our own stories in much the same way?
If you would prefer a rather more pretentious and lengthy discussion I found this essay online.
https://poetryschool.com/essays/writers-and-narcissism/
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
What I wrote
Mm. Not a story writer, but I do read my own messages, letters, comments and stuff. Maybe I'm curious and want to see what I "sound" like? Similarly I search for my face in pictures where I might be. Not that it's a particularly photogenic phizzog, just someone that I know.
Teri Ann
"Reach for the sun."
Fun!
Ain't it great to re-read your own stories and discover that you like them?
Now, you know why we love them.
Red MacDonald
Preferable
It's way better than cringing over your old writings, and feeling defiled for life for having written them -- or because others have seen them.
-- Daphne Xu
Laugh
Laugh is better than a groan. I think it is also better than wondering if anyone else saw the humor.
(pat on head) Now get busy churning out more.
Why not
I sometime read my own work over again. If it's been some time since I wrote it and can't recall the details of the story, such as how a particular conversation went, or how certain character reacted, then so much the better.
Sometimes, it's a land mine situation where in I find all kinds of errors. Left out words, or left in after an edit are particularly troublesome. Not to mention the wrong homonym or punctuation that totally changes the meaning of a sentence.
One of my reminders about this last is an assignment I had in English class when I was in High School.
We were to punctuate the following sentence:
Woman without her man is nothing.
Placement of a comma or two completely changes the meaning.
Woman, without her, man is nothing. vs Woman without her man, is nothing.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
I Read Mine...
...and feel proud all over again when I reach what I consider a clever phrase or sentence.
Then again, re-reading four stories totaling around 7000 words doesn't take a lot of time. (As I keep having to tell people, I'm not the Eric on FM.)
Eric
it's
Not about the quantity but the quality!
That said, each Gaby book is half a kilo of words, something like 80k of them! Add in the other tales and there are something like 2.5 milion Maddy words currently in print! To actually not be horrified by most of them is actually quite a surprise!
Mads
Madeline Anafrid Bell