Find your next favourite story now
Login

Do you get pleasure from reading your own writing?

last reply
17 replies
10.8k views
0 watchers
0 likes
Forum Facilitator
0 likes
Is it wrong that I derive pleasure from reading my own writing, as well as other people's? Sometimes when I'm writing something, I don't even realise what I've written, so it's nice to look back, even after the editing stage and see exactly what I've done and I may even learn from it. Sometimes I'll read something back and think "huh, that was kinda clever!", narcissistic as that may seem, but as I said, it's also a good opportunity to learn from it.
Ghosts, flamingos, guitars and vodka. Eclectic subjects, eccentric stories:

Humorous guide & Recommended Read =^.^= How To Make a Cup of Tea
A flash fiction series :) A Random Moment in Time
Editors' Pick! :D I Am The Deep, Dark Woods
And another EP!: The Fragility of Age
=^.^=
Administration
0 likes
There's nothing wrong with enjoying your own work. In fact, I think it's wrong to expect your readers to enjoy reading something that you don't want to read yourself. I go back and read my own work often, there's always something new that jumps out at me. Call me a narcissist if you like, but I happen to be my own favourite writer.

“Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.”

Forum Facilitator
0 likes
Quote by Sherzahd
There's nothing wrong with enjoying your own work. In fact, I think it's a wrong to expect your readers to enjoy reading something that you don't want to read yourself. I go back and read my own work often, there's always something new that jumps out at me. Call me a narcissist if you like, but I happen to be my own favourite writer.


Ok, you're a narcissist. I kid, of course. I have to admit, there's something cool about looking over your own writing and finding new jumpy-out bits.
Ghosts, flamingos, guitars and vodka. Eclectic subjects, eccentric stories:

Humorous guide & Recommended Read =^.^= How To Make a Cup of Tea
A flash fiction series :) A Random Moment in Time
Editors' Pick! :D I Am The Deep, Dark Woods
And another EP!: The Fragility of Age
=^.^=
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
Good question! I think it's really important that you enjoy your own writing. It's especially nice if something catches your attention because you know it's probably doing the same thing for your readers.
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
LOL. If I could do that... I'd be a GOD... I'm a freaking teenage girl do you really think I feel good about what I write? Yeah.. NO.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.
-Robert Frost
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
LOL. If I could do that... I'd be a GOD... I'm a freaking teenage girl do you really think I feel good about what I write? Yeah.. NO.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.
-Robert Frost
Story Moderator
0 likes
For me, it depends on the quality and type of story. Re-reading some of my early stuff would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, even to a writer. Humore pieces, like my current '...Cat Fight' seem to have more staying power.

Wonder if there's a diffeerent perception between poetry and prose? Maybe some of the bi-genre folks might give that thought a whirl.

Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
Absoloutly especially if it was a good piece of writing that is special to me, of course I enjoy reading it! I don't enjoy re-reading my not so great written work, but then when I start reading it again, I get that red pen out and start re-editing it LOL
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
This is a good question.

I certainly do enjoy reading my own work. Especially after some time has passed.
The more I cringe at the "not so good parts", the more I eventually learn.
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
My daughter say's when she has wrote something really good, she reads it again and thinks wow did I really write that, it's really good!
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
Yes, but it's sort of embarrassing when I get emotional at the sad parts, or start laughing when I hit the humorous ones.
Divine Rapscallion
0 likes
I have always enjoyed reading my published work. Back when I was a journalist, opening the newspaper was like Christmas morning every day for me. Whether I had scored an Easy Bake oven (front page, lead story with a byline) or just socks (two paragraphs on page 15), it was a thrill to see my writing in print. I still feel the same way, even though what I write about and the mode of delivery have changed significantly.
Connect with Maggie

Like my Facebook fan pages: Maggie Rascal and M.P. WitwerFriend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maggierascalFollow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Maggie1Rascal
0 likes
I kind of do. My teacher used the term 'smokehouse the story' (to leave it alone for a few months) so that when i read it again later it's almost as if I was reading it for the first time. Does that make sense?
Lurker
0 likes
Quote by HoneyBee000
My daughter say's when she has wrote something really good, she reads it again and thinks wow did I really write that, it's really good!


After submitting each of my story, I would read it several times a day atleast for a week!! It'd feel soooo good to see my words published...and when I get good comments I would be over the moon and would read the story again!!! (I know I AM crazy ) And I would get the same feeling - Did I really write this? And I would pat myself on the back - "a very good start girl!!"
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
I sometimes do, especially if I have left it for a while (like a year or two). Often, though, when I read my own work, I see things I should have said differently.
"Any book not worth reading twice was not worth reading the first time." Oscar Wilde
Primus Omnium
0 likes
Only the poetry...the fiction is hack work.
Rookie Scribe
0 likes
In my case, it honestly depends. I really like a lot of it, but there's a lot of pieces that make me want to throw up.
Active Ink Slinger
0 likes
I enjoy reading my own work while it's still being formed and shaped...but once I have it writen as well as I'm able...I loose interist in it. I'm the same way with my art...lots of half finished pieces hanging on the wall, and pictures that I'm looking at to draw from....but finished work must leave my sight....it's horibly flawed and insults me everytime I look at it.