Tags:
  1. labelab

    labelab Member

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2019
    Messages:
    99
    Likes Received:
    83

    What was your worst writing phase?

    Discussion in 'General Writing' started by labelab, Nov 13, 2020.

    When looking back through old work, it’s normal to cringe at yourself. But what was the time where your work was at its absolute worse? That one phase where you just cant reread it?

    Mine has to be a few years back, when I’d play thesaurus on every single word.

    What’s yours??
     
    ISalem and Cave Troll like this.
  2. Stormsong07

    Stormsong07 Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2017
    Messages:
    1,079
    Likes Received:
    1,724
    Location:
    Texas
    Mine would have to be "The Elves of Kyala Valley", a story I wrote in 8th grade and mercifully never finished. It had every fantasy trope known to man and the main character was the most Mary-Sue ish Mary-Sue that ever Mary-Sued. Plus, whenever a problem arose, someone would just use magic and fix it. Ugh.
     
    labelab likes this.
  3. DriedPen

    DriedPen Member

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2020
    Messages:
    250
    Likes Received:
    219
    I used to write a lot of stories for-profit involving "intimate relations" shall we say...

    Not in every story, but wayyyyyyyyy more than I care to admit, I used to write at the conclusion of their union, "and then he withdrew as she heard the inevitable audible 'plop"..."

    Really? I am 46 years old and have had my fair share of amicable domestic relations shall we say, and never ONCE heard that, much less the "inevitable audible plop."

    I just laugh about it now...
    (Note: certain phrases were written as such in respect to our younger readers)
     
  4. IasminDragon

    IasminDragon Member

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2020
    Messages:
    134
    Likes Received:
    147
    Location:
    Lincolnshire
    It must have been from the perspective of a man if that's what marks the conclusion... :p
     
  5. DriedPen

    DriedPen Member

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2020
    Messages:
    250
    Likes Received:
    219
    Usually for me it is falling asleep!

    I do not feel too bad though, last night a friend of mine (female) was talking to me on the phone, and fell asleep!
     
  6. IasminDragon

    IasminDragon Member

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2020
    Messages:
    134
    Likes Received:
    147
    Location:
    Lincolnshire
    I'll give you a call next time I'm suffering from insomnia... :D
     
  7. marshipan

    marshipan Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Jul 29, 2013
    Messages:
    1,665
    Likes Received:
    4,300
    Location:
    Wonderland
    This thread makes me feel uncomfortable. Back in school, creative nonfiction...oh boy. Just no. I should not have been talking about everything that I talked about. I pretty much like to pretend college never happened to me in general and that includes my writing.
     
    Cave Troll likes this.
  8. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2015
    Messages:
    17,922
    Likes Received:
    27,173
    Location:
    Where cushions are comfy, and straps hold firm.
    Taking a trip back on the way back machine (figuratively speaking), to what
    I wrote at 17-18. Young me couldn't write jack without screwing everything
    up. So don't write like younger me anymore, also got rid of some very bad
    habits of making things too drawn out that it felt more like list reading than
    actually story progression.
     
  9. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

    Joined:
    May 1, 2008
    Messages:
    23,826
    Likes Received:
    20,815
    Location:
    El Tembloroso Caribe
    When I was at the DLIFLC studying Russian, I came across Larry Niven's The Integral Trees and its follow-up, The Smoke Ring.

    For plot reasons, both books are sprinkled with Russian words because technology that is now ancient within the narrative of the books answers to Russian verbal commands.

    This led me down the utterly fallacious "If Larry Niven can do it, then so can I..." rabbit hole.
     
    Cave Troll likes this.
  10. pyroglyphian

    pyroglyphian Word Painter

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2015
    Messages:
    337
    Likes Received:
    384
    Current phase. It’s like there’s an invisible barrier with me on one side and good writing on the other. I can see it — I can recognise good writing in others' work — but I can’t reach it.
     
    Cave Troll likes this.
  11. GraceLikePain

    GraceLikePain Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2020
    Messages:
    490
    Likes Received:
    506
    Probably my early fanfic phase. Not that I only wrote fanfiction, it was just the worst period. I wrote a bit of emo teenage cringe, but the truly worst things I ever wrote were my emo poems. Truly cannot go back to those. At least my emo cringe stories had merit in some of their ideas. The poetry? Gar...BAGE.

    Oh, though I did write a puppet show about the black plague about that time. Still proud.
     
    labelab and Cave Troll like this.
  12. ISalem

    ISalem Member

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2020
    Messages:
    76
    Likes Received:
    50
    Mine, it was and still, when writing an article about a subject in two different languages. It's extremely hard to write about the same subject in two different languages. Because of every language is associated with different ways of thinking. When writing about a subject in one language for the first time, regardless of whether the language I write with is the native language or not, ideas and words come to the mind naturally. However, when writing about the same subject in the second language, even though the language I write with is the native language for instance, words don't come naturally for the same ideas. Instead new words for new ideas come, which makes it difficult to write about the same topic in two different languages to me.
     
    labelab likes this.
  13. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2019
    Messages:
    12,460
    Likes Received:
    13,503
    Location:
    Way, way out there
    Everything I wrote in grade school was pretty bad, but I think the worst was that transition point between high school and college. At least I finished a bunch of short stories, that was the good part, but I had this weird obsession with the MC ironically dying at the end of the story. I thought it was really edgy and poignant (wow, I believe that's the first time I ever used that word). And they were extremely melodramatic to boot.

    But then I believe we have to go through the bad phases, and that they're vitally important.
     
    labelab likes this.

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice