At least it means I've improved?

[ghoulmouse]

I...really want to be doing stuff, but the combination of picking up more work in the isekai mines and trying not to have this cosplay come down to the absolute wire is just eating up all my time. I feel like I can't do any projects outside of the stuff I committed to before I decided to make this costume, and I can't play any games that require, like...thought. Of course, this means I distract myself a lot with games that are pretty mindless and thus I can put them down whenever and start working, honest.

I've been playing Torchlight 2 again, because it's peak mindless, and...man, you know how people say a book has "workmanlike prose"? Torchlight 2 is that but for video games. It is absolutely the most unambitious game I have ever played. It adequately checks all the boxes and isn't interesting enough to actually be bad, so it's easy to just kind of plow through it with zero thoughts.

I tried to revisit the original Torchlight as well, but for some reason the game (and only that game) made my computer start producing a high-pitched noise whenever the window was focused. Nothing else happened but it made me nervous so I uninstalled it without playing, lol.

Have been slowly working on crossposting and making a Personal Website and...god I cannot overstate how much I hate a lot of my old writing. I keep being tempted to orphan it. A lot of it is for fandoms I'm still into, because my interests have apparently barely changed since the 90s, so I'm tempted to write "replacements".

I also keep running across author's notes like "definitely going to write a sequel!" or "major edits forthcoming!" and like. Girl. Did you seriously think that was gonna happen. Be real.

Comments

[kalloway]

I am staring down crossposting and realizing I'll need to make a spreadsheet or checklist or something. Last time I archived everything was in 2019, when I mirrored to AO3 and I absolutely did some editing as I went. Probably not as much as I could have, but enough that I felt a little better about some of the absolutely ancient stuff. (We're also our own worst critics, it's probably not that bad.)

*looks at WiPs that are speeding past various adult milestones*

*sighs*

[ghoulmouse]

Yeah, I made a checklist and just tagged everything I was uncertain about as potential memory hole fodder. When I get enough courage to look at them I can decide on an individual basis.

Luckily I essentially figured out longfics were not happening (I say, as I have a longfic I'm working on) so there aren't TOO many WIPs but there is definitely stuff I intended to...nebulously make better, somehow. I think I was just trying to assuage some nagging suspicion that it wasn't As Good As It Could Be instead of actually intending to edit them, lol.

[kalloway]

I basically learned, about a decade ago, that I need to finish a fic before posting, doesn't matter how long it is. Unfortunately there are still all the fics from before that... (Mostly FF and KH, which are fandoms I will always love but are complicated to get back to.)

I definitely have two known 'need to nebulously make better somehow' fics that I've been putting off for quite some time, so we'll see if I get to them and if I do, what I manage to do with them. (That or I someday roll around in how bad they are and just finish them up and throw away the key.)

[cora]

god I cannot overstate how much I hate a lot of my old writing. I keep being tempted to orphan it.

I feel like every writer has a "hall of shame" that contains things they have written. I will say, I have read fanfics that are arguably really awful writing (a lot of "tell" but not a lot of "show"), or the content may be something that years later on down the road, the fanfic author may wind up choosing to remove for whatever reason (doesn't spark joy, they find the plot cringe-y, the writing was "mediocre," whatever).

I can say as a fanfic consumer - I have no qualms about reading any writers "Hall of shame" fics. Some of my favorite fanfics have been the "tell, don't show" kind. I enjoyed the story the author was going for. Some of my favorite fanfics, I will re-read over and over, and start to recognize places where the author's writing isn't as strong. It does not do anything to decrease how much I love the fanfic.

Please don't underestimate your audience :) They may still enjoy your "early years," "just learning to write" fanfics just as much as they enjoy what you come up with currently.