12mo ago

You all ever go back to older works and realize how creative you were?

I don't know if it's an effect of growing up or an effect of growing up during these trying ass times but sometimes it feels like that spark of creativity is gone (or at least incredibly diminished).

Went back and read one of my older stories from a few years back and I gotta say, it's striking how entertaining and creative I found it, and when I think to anything I written recently, it's depressing how dull/uninspired it is.

4 comments

Quite the contrary for me. I'm fond of what I did as a kid/teenager, but I'm proud of the improvements I made growing up.
It's also because my tastes changed a lot after my 20s and I don't really recognize my younger self's works as "good". But as I said, I'm still proud of the commitment I put into them, and I sometimes go back and attempt to improve them and make them align to my current knowledge and sensibility.

I get it. I was mostly writing comedic stories in my twenties which i still go back and laugh at now and again. The writings from my teens however were full of angsty fanfic melodrama and are really really bad.

I find that when I read my older stuff it feels like reading someone else's work and so the flaws don't bother me in the same way.

Same, kinda. This year I've been leaning into recreating that sense of childhood creativity in my writing/art; for me, it's about bringing back the earnestness and enthusiasm that got dulled in my teen/adult years. I think we're all still the same creative kid inside, we're just embarrassed now about our ideas being "cringe" or "unoriginal". Or we're making stuff to appeal to an audience instead of ourselves.