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Hi!
Question: How long does it take after you've edited and posted a fic to be able to re-read it without feeling like you're going to throw up?
(I'm seriously emetophobic, so typing the words 'throw up' is very hard for me, but no other phrase comes close to expressing my feelings on this matter.)
Question: How long does it take after you've edited and posted a fic to be able to re-read it without feeling like you're going to throw up?
(I'm seriously emetophobic, so typing the words 'throw up' is very hard for me, but no other phrase comes close to expressing my feelings on this matter.)
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And then I'll decide between the two.
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But if I wait too long to look it over again, I find even more things wrong with it. My favorite thing I have ever produced, my novel, A New Day, makes me want to pull my hair out right now; I looked at it the other day to check for a point of continuity in my personal canon and I wanted to sit down and re-write the entire thing.
My answer is that I have no answer. Maybe if it were a drabble or a short poem, I could look at something and think it was as good as I could get it, but never on longer things. I usually just have to declare them finished and "off limits" at a certain point, unless I spot an obvious error or typo.
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ANSWER THE ONE: Having now read a not-insubstantial amount of your fic, I can use any one of several methods of statistical analysis to show, with better than 99.8% certainty, that you aren't capable of posting something worthy of.... you know.... when reading it later. (I also despise doing... that, so I know what you mean.). Therefore you don't have to worry about it.
ANSWER THE OTHER: It's a trick question with no real answer; because the only vantage point from which you can look back on a work with complete satisfaction is that of a better one. E.g., you re-read something from ten years ago or yesterday; and you can look on it kindly because you learned from its flaws and wrote something better. It was a stepping stone, and as such, you feel like you've gone forward and no longer want to... you know... over those errors or weaknesses.
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But you are so correct about drabbles and short pieces! I was thinking about this while posting the question. Maybe smaller means less margin of error, or smaller is a like beautifully-made piece of clothing that emphasizes the author's attributes. I don't know, but I have less of a need to read my smaller fics with my nose scrunched up and my head turned to the side so I have to see the fic out of the corner of my eye.
But it is this tendency that keeps us trying for better or more or something else, which is crucial to the creative process.
I have no problem reading Your stories over and over!
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1. Praise from Leos is the most substantial praise there is. Thank you. Whether this is the Leo answering, or not, I'm tacking this to my wall and staring at it.
2. Your are absolutely right. If we were contented with a finished work, we would have no desire to do more or better. Disgust is a useful and instrumental motivator.
How often do you go back and spend time with a finished visual piece?
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Why the hell do we do this?
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(oh god, oh god, I have 46,000 words of weiss kreuz fic and it's all terrible)
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Your golf club scene is still my canon.
I post maybe 5%, maybe less, of what I write. What about you?
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Now, while writing I often delete a lot/start over because I don't like things, but that's different.
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I want to learn how to write for a purpose, like your kink bingo. I want to do that.
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1. Now, you've assumed that this was the Leo answer; what if it was the unvarnished truth, hmmm? Either way you most certainly should print it out, prominently label it 'THE TRUTH' and put it someplace where you can see it as you're deciding whether to post a story or not.
2. Who but a Leo says things in such a way to imply that there is no other right answer? Still, this one could also be the truth: I'm not really a sunshine-out-of-the-ass sort, nor am I an egomaniac, therefore yes, I will tell anyone that I get disgusted with my art on a regular basis, and it helps. I am trying to train myself to use that disgust to spring off to something better, not as an excuse to drop my pencils and go play Castlevania. (I've done both, certainly.)
I frequently flinch over old pieces, scrolling past them as I hunt down a file to open in Photoshop. However it's quite rare for me to pick up an old piece again; I either solve and finish something, or drop it forever. I don't know if this is a good habit or not. Being solved-and-finished doesn't exempt a piece from making me want to... you know... but in retrospect, I have to admit that I enjoy the dichotomy: I look at it, I wince over the errors, but often I remember what it was about it that made me happy when I was drawing it, which feels nice. I want that feeling again, so I start to draw something... and the cycle repeats.
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So sign up for kink bingo. Signups are open
for another daytil the 14th derp. Do it. Jump in the deep end.From:
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But then ahpookishere would beat me with a tire iron because I haven't added to the soviet art heist story in three weeks. It's her fault.
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You can always do soviet russia first even if you sign up, because kb amnesty doesn't end until next year, so there's lots of time. Plus, oh my god, I am the only person who writes porn that isn't shit like crawford/aya or yohji/aya, except for ahpook, but she only wrote hers because I kicked her into it. and hers was better than mine, bawww, shot myself in the foot there.
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90% of the 95% is porn. Or I should say, porn-ish. How about this -- I'll get over my irrational fears of posting no plot and rather than kink bingo, I will post my porn.
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BECAUSE IT WILL EAT MY BRAIN!
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You're really wonderful, and it has nothing to do with your Leo-ness. Some. But that's not all.
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