Do your old posts make you cringe?

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Minerva

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I was going through old posts, and I was wondering:

When you go through old posts of yours, do you ever cringe at them?

I was going through old posts of mine on here, just to see them, and I am cringing at my writing style from just in January!

I think I've improved a bit since January. I go through even older posts on other websites, and cringe even more, due to all the things I see.

So, tell me, if you go back through your old posts, do you cringe at them?
 
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Oh, heck yes. Sometimes I find I don't even want to look at my old posts because they were so terrible. XD I think that the few old posts I can read over without cringing were from one old RP I was in that was one of my first few favorites out of the small amount of group ones I did, and from a few one on ones I've done. o_o
 
Yes. I don't go back and read my posts often but when I want to update some writing from my notebook I cringe.
After I update it I feel I should kill the old writing with fire. :devilfire:
 
Not on Iwaku, but definitely anything from other sites.
 
Serious stuff, never. Call me an egotist but sometimes I'll read my own stuff but not realize it was me, and be like "Wow, I agree 100000% o.o Who is he/she?" And then it ends up being me who wrote it and i'm like "Awwww... And here I thought there was another me out there" XD


But for roleplays, quite a bit XP There are times where I'll re-read something and I don't even know what's going on XD (Granted that's more because there's allot going on at the same time, but still) And some characters are out of character. Sometimes I did that to get a move on, sometimes it's just because their personalities have evolved since then. There was this one character I was reading and i'm like "Who is this person? They act like this other guy" Then I remembered that I actually changed their name since then. Or times where I'll be reading a character that I long since dropped/deleted. But that just shows that I've gotten quite a bit better so yeah ^^
 
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Occasionally I'll find an old post while trying to get the bottom of a thread I'm in. Sometimes, my writing drops in quality and I can't stand to look at my old posts. Eugh.
 
I'm pretty egotistical at times when it comes to posting(like rereading something I said because it received a rating), but I don't mind looking at my old posts. There is no question that I've improved, but looking at old posts is something important to do as a GM for one extremely powerful reason. It will make you more accepting and forgiving of the mistakes made by your less experienced playerbase. In understanding that writing evolves over time, I think it has made me want to allow people to make their mistakes and guide them in the most sincere and effective way that I know how. So while the posts are definitely worth cringing over, I think seeing those kinds of things humanizes us. I'd actually recommend people to look over their early work if they happen to have the time. I know that modernizing my oldest work has actually lead to some of my most beloved characters.
 
Yes... I couldn't spell at all and my grammar T-T It was sooo bad. Which is sad, cause I had such a funny first roleplay here on iwaku when I started at the age of 18, and every time I try to re-read it, I cringe and can't continue reading. o_o *Wants to edit every post*
 
Take any RP post of mine, wait around 6 months to a year and then send it back at me. 90% of the time I'll find something to cringe at.

For example, the title of an RP on the Star Wars site I used to help Admin.

[27/09/2015 12:18:48 PM] Gwazi Magnum: 6 years later
[27/09/2015 12:18:57 PM] Gwazi Magnum: And only now do I notice a typo with an RP name.
[27/09/2015 12:19:08 PM] Gwazi Magnum: "The Galaxys Density Begins"
[27/09/2015 12:19:12 PM | Edited 12:19:22 PM] Gwazi Magnum: DENSITY (Old friend from the RP)!!!
[27/09/2015 12:19:15 PM | Edited 12:19:28 PM] Gwazi Magnum: DENSITY!!!
 
No, I don't cringe. I have a lot of fun with it, though. When I look back on what a younger, most definitely shittier version of me wrote about, I get nostalgic rather than cringe. I can't exactly go back in time to when I was twelve, and even if I did, would anything of merit or value be gained in erasing what later became a lesson? :ferret:

I've written plenty of stupid, nonsensical things. Even on Iwaku. Everybody has written plenty of stupid, nonsensical things. Some of my closest friends have, some people I've never even met have. If 90% of everything is shit, then so is your writing. No sense cringing about it, that doesn't get anything done. It must have made sense once, and even if it doesn't anymore, I can always laugh at what it is now, or learn something from it and grow to either be a better person or a better writer as a result of the misstep.

So, nah, I don't cringe. I turn it into a comedy, or I admire it for what it was: One step of many thousands I'll take before the end.
 
Nope. I may find a post here or there that is bad, but never really cringeworthy. Instead I'm likely to be amused at my past goofs or feel proud of my current writing in comparison to the old.
 
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I found a notebook with some old stories I wrote when I was younger. Reading it made me realise my writing style had lots of cliche themes XD
 
I don't think anyone means "I wish to erase this!" when they say Cringe.

I know when I say it I mean "God this was really bad compared to my current skill".
But I don't ever want to get rid of it, because even if I am cringing at it there is still nostalgia there.
And I am fully aware the only reason I cringe is because my skills improve to the point I can look back and see the difference.
So there is a sense of Pride there and amusement, there's just also a bit of Cringing.
 
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YEEEEESSSS very much yes. XD

But I agree with what Gwazi said -- it's not cringe-worthy in an "I must delete this!!" sort of way as much as a "oh God, this is so bad, sooooo bad" way, while still being able to laugh at it/be nostalgic about it.

But yes. Much cringe-worthy content. Definitely. XD
 
Everybody's writing is shit all the time and every time anyway, so don't dwell on it.

become one with the garbage oozing, shitty smelling pile of goop that is our collective writing.
 
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I started coming here once I got past my obnoxious pleb-stage, so I can safely say that my earlier Iwaku posts don't make me cringe. Though they could have been a bit better.

Now, as for posts from other places I've been to. Oh man I actively try to deny they ever existed. Early internet days are cancer, man.
 
Yes, literally every single thing I've posted in the past is cringe worthy to me, because there's always something that I wish I would have done differently or not have done at all. That doesn't stop me from going back and reading them, though, partially for nostalgia and partially just to learn from my mistakes.
 
Sometimes. Throughout the years I've RP'd, I try to keep in mind that the more I read and write, the more I improve. Therefore, what I look back on is bound to be shitty in some way. More than my grammar, writing style, etc., I cringe at the characters I used to play. >__>; So much stereotypical teenage garbage.
 
Nope not really. It's a combination of nostalgia and vanity so I've always liked to go back and read my earlier stuff just to say "wow I really wrote that" and experience the emotions I felt writing that. Even my later posts which I consider "failures" are because I was experimenting with what would worked and what didn't with certain characters. Brovo can attest to times where I went overboard with posts due to that experimentation. Anything before the RolePlayers Guild or Iwaku I can't find and has probably been wiped so those are all I have left to go on. And I got nothing to be ashamed of. :P
 
Brovo can attest to times where I went overboard with posts due to that experimentation.
You made ten different villains for a single fucking character. Ten different villains, each with their own goddamn motif and motivation. Good God man.
 
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