Old writing

One of the weird experiences you have when you're a writer is if you find old work of yours.  The older it is, regardless how good other people may feel it is, the worse you look on it.  You want to edit it, or pitch it all together.  Writing is a skill that grows and evolves with the writer, whether or not they admit it.

So packing and getting ready for my new place I have found a ton of writing from when I was from ages 11 to 18.  Some for school and some for my own enjoyment.  And let me tell you, it's embarrassing to read some of it.  But some of it is actually quite good.  Things I have noticed:

-At least back then, my short stories were well written.  I think since I didn't have a lot of time, it was easier to make short stories great.

-I am definitely over my Mary-Sue phase, and I'm so much happier for it.

-Poetry is not my strong point, but it's good enough that if I wanted to write lyrics for a living it's possible that I could.

-Deciding to think about plot and character motivation first is one of the best decisions I ever made in my writing process.

-Writing for a webcomic and trying to be funny is a lot harder than it seems when it's just you and your good friend talking about the scripts.

-Also, a webcomic premise based in a "not-mall"is not a good setting.  Especially if half the comic is based around that premise.

-I get pretty profound ideas, great philosophical concepts, but I need to work on making them tangible and understandable to the reader.  At least, I needed to work on that then, I'm not sure how much I need to work on it now.

-I don't think I'm going back to first person ever again.  I love the powers I have in third person.

-I've gotten much better at making characters complex, especially antagonist.  Not to say I can't get even better.

-No matter how long of a gap I may have, I will always be a writer.

It's really funny to think that through most of my life, I never saw myself as a potential author until recently, because I was always writing something.  Even in college I would get play ideas and stories that I had to put on paper.  I just wished I had been more observant sooner.  Not that it would've changed much, but it never hurts to know yourself better.

Also, thank you for the laughs, past self.  Some of this stuff, although good for where I was, is still funny to think I wanted to do.