In more positive thinking-about-my-thinking musings...

[bladespark]

...I've been really enjoying the experience of putting my ponyfics up on AO3.

I'm doing it mostly because it started to bug me that a huge swathe of my fanfic wasn't represented properly there, so it's a kinda borderline-OCD desire for completeness and organization. I do wish I'd just done it as I went along, so they'd be in order, but for a long time the idea of posting things to resounding silence was just so unthinkable. It bothers me less now, for whatever reason.

Anyway!

I'm super-enjoying the trip down memory lane. Just scanning over the list of them isn't the same as going through them for formatting and being reminded of every chapter.

I'm even sometimes reading them after I've posted. (I can't be the only person here who likes reading their own stories after they're done, right?)

Some of them are definitely stronger than others (gods, I still kinda want to re-write The Red Dawn, it has so much good stuff in it but it's not good as an over-arching story, it needs to be at least twice as long and to really explore the shipping side, instead of just the trouble-shipping-a-sun-goddess-and-a-vampire thing that was why I wrote it, but really that one moment doesn't work properly when it's not fitted into a full development of their relationship? But I digress.

Visiting old works is just nice.

Comments

[daryl_wor]

Absolutely. That's most of what I do anyway. I have that more inner-critic or inner-curious design of double, triple, quadruple, quintuple checking of grammar, spelling, quirks, dialogue, definitions and word choices, and it's even in letters and journal entries as well. Maintaining focus and enjoyment I believe is where it comes from.

I'm in a similar position now going through a novel by sending a pen friend chapters on paper. It really helps to just go over everything again slowly. Different model of doing it, but it's kind of that same thing. Glad to see it brought up! :)

[alexseanchai]

you are absolutely not the only one! if I get a comment on something and I haven't read it recently, I am probably gonna reread it before replying!

[silveradept]

Rereading old works is nice, to see what still works, what might not now, and, if course, to see what kind of kudos and comments it got, too!