So I took a break from writing for a number of months and just went back to read my story from the beginning.

It had a lot of flaws, but honestly it was a lot of fun. There were parts I didn't remember writing at all, and it was like I was reading someone else's story some chapters.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What would it be like to read a full story you wrote years in the past?

Curious to hear how others see their past works. (Or maybe I just have the memory of a goldfish haha)

TheRedNaz535 Wrote: So I took a break from writing for a number of months and just went back to read my story from the beginning.

It had a lot of flaws, but honestly it was a lot of fun. There were parts I didn't remember writing at all, and it was like I was reading someone else's story some chapters.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What would it be like to read a full story you wrote years in the past?

Curious to hear how others see their past works. (Or maybe I just have the memory of a goldfish haha)

At that point, it is a guilty pleasure. One in which must never see the light of day. 

Yes! :D
I can't stand the thought of writing in the same style as I did, but I love re-reading what I've forgotten.
So freaking glad it works like that; easily my favorite part of the whole experience.

I always fear it. My early stories I wrote are so horrible I can't really read them without wanting to edit them all.  And some other work I think is soo good I do not know if I'll ever be able to write like that again.  So, I try to stay away from the work I did more than a year ago.

When I was young I've written a cringy wuxia story set in ancient China...
I had a good laugh on myself whenever I read it. 
But i swear when I wrote them, i feel the MC was super awesome.
But now it reads like Kung Fu Panda exaggerated.

They should stay in the darkness where they belong.

Reading my old, unedited stories? I'd die of cringe. They do have some fun ideas, or good parts, but mostly they are badly written bad jokes and unreadable prose.

Personally, I enjoy it.

Most of the times, I can recognise the flaws my earlier writing posessed and thus see how far I've come, and rarely, very rarely, do I come across a piece of my own work that's simply amazing. Like, did I actually write that kind of amazing. 

It's motivating. 

I read over my old fanfiction quite a lot, to similar effects. I don’t quite have enough original stories to read over those fondly; I’m less likely to enjoy looking over them. Sometimes I distinctly remember where I wrote the chapter (for some of my fanfiction, I can recall if I wrote the chapter on paper during school, and there was one chapter of another one that I wrote in the basement because a tornado watch/warning came around and being upstairs gave me anxiety), sometimes I can’t.

I’ve also written oneshots; I read over those more often. Especially the fluffy ones :P

A combination of cringe and amusement. There is some awful writing, but some good ideas. Actually I recently reread something I'd forgotten I'd written - from like ten years ago - only to be really annoyed with myself for leaving it unfinished. So I might end up revamping that one. 😅

TheRedNaz535 Wrote: Curious to hear how others see their past works. (Or maybe I just have the memory of a goldfish haha)

I do this. I'm amazed sometimes.

I've done it occasionally with a fanfiction I'm rewriting, and though it's not as bad as I used to think, it's still PRETTY bad. I hope I actually get somewhere in the rewrite so I wont ever have to read the old version again. 

It's mostly cringe for me lol. As a general rule I avoid looking at my old works. Heck, there are some chapters of Surviving the Arcanum I peek at from under the proverbial blanket because I know they didn't come across as well as they could have, and I'm only ~20 chapters in.

The general consensus seems to be old work = cringe. But hey, maybe that means we are all improving!

For me, it also depends on the mood I'm in. 

Sometimes I just seem to want to beat myself up, but then I'll read the same thing later and think its not so bad.

While writing new stuff I'm in the constant process of editing old stuff and therefore I have to reread it.
It was hard when I picked up writing again after a long hiatus and started editing my first novel after around five years. Much telling instead of showing and other crimes, but stuff that surprised me as well. Today I'm more lenient towards my early works (and my younger self), as enough people showed up to tell me that they liked it when I couldn't anymore.