this message may be offensive
Ouch, I just read through the old stories I once posted on here when I first joined Wattpad...they're cringey asf. I can't believe I actually had the guts to post something like that but at the same time, I gained a lot of followers with them. But still, the grammar, the punctuation, the dialogue, the characters were sooo edgy, I mean, they were just extremely evil for no damn reason. I cringed so badly when one of my characters killed a defenseless kid and went on to genocide the whole damn store, like, really, what was the motive? Why? Just to show that they were evil? Come ooonnn...that's just lazy writing, I'm honestly disturbed with my old self, some teenagers really do write the evilest shit on this planet, yikes. I mean, at least adults know how to control the tone of their story without making it edgy.
Everything was shambles, there was even a whole 20 page chapter of a sword fight scene, just slash slash, punch, kick, repeat, nothing else, no dialogue, no strategy, just the MC blitzing through the opposition one by one...how boring is that? Maybe in an anime it'd be cool, the tense music, the flashy effects and sounds, I get it, but not in a book. I'm glad I learned that lesson.
I'm only remembered by my very first followers for my old stories, I'm sorry to those who had to read through that cringe. My new stories are 10000x better but haven't gotten as much attention as the old ones, not complaining though, it is what it is.
I've really grown exponentially as a writer this year, it's crazy, talk about a glow-up. 2022 has been devastating year for me but this is definitly one good thing. I hope I continue to grow as a writer, maybe in real life too, haha.
Does anyone else feel like that when you read through your old writing? Has your writing style changed much since you first started?