Poll-yah!

[leethet]

Note: I was reviewing some old posts about the craft and remembered that I had had some really fun ones in another fandom so I went over there and collected some, and will post a few here. Those who know me know this, but for those who don't: You can say anything in my LJ. If it's offensive you won't get a pass on it, but I censor no one, I ban no one, and I'm not afraid of being corrected or disagreed with. This is unlikely to come up in regard to these writing questions; just makin' the point.

Here's the thing. I re-read my own stuff and I like it, but I don't love it. I wouldn't place me in a list of my favorite writers, or more accurately, in a list of the best fandom writers. So ...

[Poll #1974441]

Please elaborate upon your answer in a comment!

Comments

[lgvu.livejournal.com]

If it helps, I LOVE your stuff.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[mayamaia.livejournal.com]

Me three! And if I were reading it with my higher standards for non-fandom literature, I'd STILL say so!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Writing is like cooking, if it isn't any good I won't serve it. I eat my own cooking and I read my own stories; how else do I get better?

[elmey.livejournal.com]

I answered #3, though it's not exactly the perfect answer. I don't normally re-read what I wrote, but sometimes I'll stumble across it for one reason or another and re-read. I can't say that I read it with unadulterated pleasure, because I can see what's wrong with it and where I could have done better. At the same time, I don't truly dislike any of it and will finish reading. And I do like my characterizations and the kind of subject matter I tackle. So yes, if someone else had written those stories, they'd be right up my alley :) Maybe I'd be less critical of the faults? I don't know for sure, I'm a pretty critical reader.

My reading habits are definitely broader than my writing habits though, I enjoy a wider range of stories than I'm able to write.

What's interesting on re-reading is that invariably I've forgotten that I've put such and such into the story. It's very odd.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Your answer and Francis' are closest to how I look at it. I lack the element of surprise someone else's story provides, and I'm still too able to see the nuts and bolts of my own writing to get swept up in it as I might in someone else's story. I'm also a harsh critic; I don't write as well as I require a writer to write before I call that writer "good." :-) That's OK, though, because it gives me something to shoot for and it's nice to hit those moments in my own stuff where I go "Ooh. That was pretty cool."

[veronicaluv.livejournal.com]

I write what I like to read and to fill a need in my own fandom enjoyment. That's not to say I've liked and re-read everything I've written - there are some embarrassing stinkers from the early days of my fan fiction writing career that are not to be spoken of - but for the most part, I find it comforting to know that there's just the perfect fix-it fic for whatever issues I had with whatever canon. Writing fanfic has always been more fun for me than reading fanfic...so now I'm just confused :).

[vysila.livejournal.com]

I just want to say that I have always enjoyed your stories and am grateful that you prefer writing to reading! I do miss your MFU stories, though.

And I love your icon. I don't suppose I can hope that you are writing in my 'other fandom'?

[veronicaluv.livejournal.com]

thank you! I always assume I'll write again in MFU, although my writing time is greatly curtailed these days. I'm just not done with Napoleon and Illya quite yet.

And aside from a horrible Mary Sue that my best friend and I wrote back in the day, I've never written in Star Wars. Which is kind of crazy, considering how much I adore the original trilogy :).

[granderobino.livejournal.com]

I consider you one of the best writers in the fandom. As for my own writing, I always write for myself. If others fancy one of my pieces, I consider it a bonus.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I don't re-read my stuff as a matter of course and find that quite a bit of time needs to have elapsed before I will happily do so, which helps with not remembering how it all pans out (which is an ideal for anything I'm reading, really, I'm not a massive re-reader unless I really like something in the first place). It's cool sometimes to go 'oh, did I write that?' if I come across a particularly nice turn of phrase...

As for popularity/fame as a writer, I've resigned myself to being in the middle pack wherever I am. Sometimes I help that out by writing pairings people don't go for as much, but I have to write what gets me going and if that's not the main pairing in the fandom, it can't be helped.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

A little OT: if you like taking odd pairings and if you know and appreciate that old British show "The Professionals", couldn't you have a look (and a try) at the Bodie/Cowley pairing? (she says, without much hope). I'm feeling sadly lonely in my little corner.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I'm not the woman for the job - there's just something about them that doesn't really work for me...

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Ah? Well you're not the only one in that case!

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

I write so slowly and so painfully (in a foreign language, that doesn't help) that I must be satisfied with the result. As a rule, I am not when I post the text (though not knowing how I could improve it) but months or years later, I'm usually pleasantly surprised: I have the "Oh, that's not bad!; really is it me who has written those lines?" sort of reaction. However I cannot say I positively love the best I have produced; I just like it, more or less.

[vysila.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope my response didn't sound quite so egocentric as I think it might. But I am tickled when someone recs one of my stories and I do re-read at that point. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised and think, oh that really did turn out pretty well. And sometimes I groan and think, whyever did I let that one out before its time?

There is always so much more to learn about the craft of writing. I'm not always sure I see that progression in my finished stories, but the only way to improve is to keep on trying!

[mayamaia.livejournal.com]

I tend to like my writing well enough, but what makes some of my stories meaningful to me is beyond even that, a place where the original inspiration lives alongside the story. When my writing works, it has a particular special life to me.

When my writing doesn't work, I puzzle and fiddle with it, and I may change things for any work at any time, except for drabble-sized unimportant things.

And I have a lot of patience with bad writing when it comes to fandom. I will read all the way through a bad fic, usually, if it is not simply disgusting and cruel. I find my own writing is not in that category, so it is not difficult to read my own work.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the "genius" that makes us write - that creative spark is profoundly valuable to me and I miss it terribly now that the menopause has robbed me of it. Although I am slowly stumbling through some fic writing now, so maybe it'll come back. It's been deeply important to me my whole life. It is, however, separate from my evaluation about the quality of my writing as compared to writing that I consider excellent.