Reading your own work?

[TheLordOfChaos201]

To all writer out there.

Do you ever go back over your own work months later and just read and enjoy it? I know as a writers we don't get much satisfaction out of our work. I mean when we write the story it is the best feeling imagining and setting out those scenes, feeling hearing and experiencing all those emotions and actions... but! suddenly when we publish our work there is that little bit or apprehension, of anxiety and dread. what will my readers think, what will they say. will they understand it like I do, will they enjoy it... will they read it at all!!!!!

now coming back a few months after that initial post how do you feel about your work now? reading over viewers comments, finding all the errors you missed, reading your story and smiling at all the moments you forgot about and for the first time got to experience as the reader not the writer.

now was it all worth it? was the time you put into writing that story, well spent? did you gain some further insight or sharpen some aspect of yourself that gives you more confidence to face the world to strike out and say

I AM A WRITER!

 

[The_Messenger]

Reading your own work is something every writer does (or should do). This is how you spot mistakes, find places where you can improve or add changes to further develop later events or even add some for a surprise or plot twist. This process is needed because this is how you polish your works till it has that shine that attracts people towards it.

There's also a charm in this personal reviewing. As the author you know everything about those characters. Some writers consider each of the story characters as their "children"; as the author made those characters and watched them grow into adulthood and knows them better than anyone. If the author successfuly builds an emotional bridge with his own characters by writing deep and meaningful things then its impossible for even a casual reader not to feel something towards those characters.

Of course some writers don't do this; it's a common mistake and some find it weird to read your own things if you already know how everything's going to play out. They claim that there's no surprise or satisfaction in it, like watching something you've already seen several times before.

Any person alive be he/she an artist, writer, the moment you decide to make something and you look at it then declare that it's 100% done, you sweel with pride and have the best possible opinion about your work. This is where a poor reaction towards reviews comes from. If you put 100 people in a room each person will always have a different opinion than the other, some will have common grounds with eachother and some wont. It is exceptionally difficult to please everyone, all of those 100 people in the room. The secret is to stay your own course of story, keep an open mind in anything and always maintain a diplomatic and respectful attitude towards people. If you fall prey to harsh reviewers or even begin to argue with them then you are damaging yourself in more ways than you think. Not only you make a poor impression of yourself, but if you change your style and story too much then it's no longer yours. At that point its only a desperate attempt where the author scrambles in all directions as he/she tries to please and no longer entertain or surprise with original works.