Truth Thursday: The Horrors and Joys of Reading Your Old Stuff

Sometimes, I dig out pieces of my old writing. Usually, I instantly regret it, for obvious reasons. But there are things to be learned from burning out my own eyeballs with my own writing, which I will share.

• I could dwell on how awful my writing used to be, how shallow my characters were and how flat everything sounded. Or I can compare it to how I write now, smile, laugh, and move on. Without writing like I did before, I would never be able to write like I do now. I finished writing 40 first drafts of novels, and it's my 40th novel that's getting published. So lesson is, try, try, and try again, and after using a fistful of pens, you'll probably get somewhere.
• People's opinions are valuable. I grew most when I had feedback from people so I knew what I was doing wrong and what I needed to fix. Now I remember what people said, especially if multiple people said the same thing about the same piece, and make those mistakes much less often. It shows because my writing now flows so much better.