Dusting off your Old Shames

I'm sitting here, beer in hand, reading over some of my old stories from my previous attempt at a fantasy world. And wincing a lot.

Anyone else ever do that? look over your older stuff (stuff you thought was good when you wrote it) and just...flinch?

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

All. The. Time.

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We should post them here. With the understanding, of course, that they're supposed to be bad. I'll upload mine to Fictionpress tomorrow when I'm not so tired.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

I thought this thread would be about Deconstructing/Reconstructing your personal Old Shame, not just posting them. My Old Shame is so crappy I don't know if it could be de/reconstructed, but I suppose any idea can be done well...

I'm feeling strangely happy now, contented and serene. Oh don't you see, finally I'll be, somewhere that's green...

I looked through my old shame half-started novels a while ago.

My 30/40-something year old man sounds like an angsty teenager... And I shall never write a werewolf ever again. Though I keep coming back to vampires against my better judgment...

It seems a recurring thing that a lot of my characters turn out to be really unlikable once the initial "YAY I MADE A CHARACTER" wears off...

@OOZE: whatever you like. Mine are easily deconstructed; I was living with/married to a woman who loved Elf Quest, Fern Gully and Marion Zimmer Bradley, and she was my "muse". Fill in the blanks, and read at your peril when I post.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

I don't have stories, I have notes. But good god. Good god.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Mine were all written when I was 6-11.

I'm feeling strangely happy now, contented and serene. Oh don't you see, finally I'll be, somewhere that's green...

Considering I started writing these when I was 10, I hardly blame myself, but oh god some of that is fucking awful.

I can say I've greatly improved, though.

"This thread has gone so far south it's surrounded by nesting penguins. " — Madrugada

I've long since mentally expunged and redacted all the short stories I did in high school both for a class and not.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

You know what Harlan Ellison said: you have to write a thousand bad stories before you start writing good ones.

I wrote horrible stuff for years. Then I burned it all.

I wrote more horrible stuff. Then I burned it all again.

Moral: don't give up.

Under World. It rocks!

I recently dug up a fantasy novel I wrote when I was 15.

I have to admit I didn't read much of it before firing up the shredder. I might regret that eventually but right now I'm glad that thing's dead. There may be an electronic copy somewhere. On a CD or something. Not sure.

no one will notice that I changed this

I've got a couple of old notebooks in my room with old stories in them. I haven't looked at them in five years because, frankly, I'm afraid to look at them.

Just thinking about it makes me nervous...

My Wattpad — A haven for delightful degeneracy

I just destroy this stuff so.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

My Old Shame is mostly shameless power rangers rip off, then some angsty stuff written when I was a younger teenager, then there was the time I tried to write a mind screw and wound up with the Parallaxus series, aka, that time Matthew went bad.

Sign on for this After The End Fantasy RP.

Actually dusted off an older story I planned out and took a look at it, and my reaction was WOW...I used to be good!

Lo L so my Old Story stayed and I let go of my new shame.

[[User Banned]]_ My Pm box ix still open though, I think?

I have no old shame stories as such, but i do have a pile of drawings, many that qualify.

Many more, however, have good ideas that are just poorly exicuted, and one or two are at a par above my current work, it seems...

Pure entropy (and one international move) has ensured that I have managed to lose pretty much anything I wrote before about three or four years ago. However, I remember them. Some weren't too too bad. Many were just way like my inspirations — better to be imitating Cherryh than Twilight, I guess, but not that closely.

A brighter future for a darker age.

Whenever I think about my old stories I usually remember writing Stargate fanfiction in high school,  ^*

or a horror short story I wrote in eighth grade that was pretty good.  ^*

^{I think it was called "The Dragon of Moongate Lake" or something to that effect.}

The funny thing about all of this is that the former is floating around on the internet, while the latter even though it was a graded assignment  ^*

^{and it was graded an A too!}

is lost. Funny how things like this happen...

edited 11th Dec '10 8:00:22 AM by EldritchBlueRose

Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.

Just for reference, Matthew's initial characterization is that of a socially stigmatized Dogged Nice Guy with a messiah complex.

After Parallaxus? Here are three tropes to sum up his character: Ax-Crazy Chaotic Evil Omnicidal Maniac

Sign on for this After The End Fantasy RP.

I remember writing something about Tony Montana duking it out with an entire city's police force — Pikachu by his side. That was fourth grade. And I think Tony won in the end and had Pikachu solve all the world's electricity shortages. Dear. My English teacher didn't like it one bit. ("Police is good! No writing bad stuff on them.")

edited 11th Dec '10 9:53:41 PM by QQQQQ

That...is just awesome. I'd actually pay to read that. not a lot, you understand...but something.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

^ Hmm. I was laughing juice out my nose the whole time I was writing that. Maybe I think I try writing it again actually.

edited 11th Dec '10 9:55:50 PM by QQQQQ

Oh GOD. My first novel clocked in at 52,729 words. I finished it when I was 15 and was so very, very proud of it.

Three years later, I look at it and wince. The plot consisted of blatant expys of myself and my two best friends getting sucked back into Medieval England. Only problem is, I didn't know a damn thing about Medieval England, the plot was full of holes large enough to fly a dragon through, the dialogue is on Totally Radical levels of cheesiness, the characters all have the depth of the film of water at the bottom of my glass, etc. etc.

And then there's the Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic I wrote a couple years before that. That's even worse.

I should really post my first attempt at writing a fantasy novel...it is truly terrible.

I wrote it in high school. I thought I could write an erotic tragedy from the perspective of a female lead...the result is really too awful to contemplate. I read through it recently and wanted to bang my head on my desk. Repeatedly.

EDIT: I made an account on Fictionpress, but its telling me I have to wait two days to upload documents. So I guess y'all will have to wait to read my terrible writing.

edited 11th Dec '10 10:38:19 PM by drunkscriblerian

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~