Discussion To anyone who has written a novel

I'm looking forward to writing a novel sometime soon and was wondering, do you enjoy reading your own novel or do you not read your own novel since you've written it and know the entire story

 

Yes and no. It's fun seeing your ideas develop and come into play but at the same time you read through all the parts that could've been changed to be better, all the grammar mistakes, and all the cringe worthy moments.
It's a mixture between pride and self loathing.

 

For the most part, No. The reason is because you will always pick apart your own work. Constantly point out issues that youve made in the past or hate how you worded paragraphs. This is the reason why alot of books are not put out there due to the fact that the author will constantly reword, rewrite and retcon their own work. So if you write your own, get someone else to read it.

 

When I read something I wrote long time ago it is usually interesting to read as I have forgoten most of details by that time. But I also see places I could've written better.

 

I find that I might enjoy the effort that was put in but not always the novel itself. You’d sometimes feel it could be done better. But, I do reread it also to look for anything to fix or add like plot holes or clarify information. Overall though, I like reading it, but I’m the one who made it. I’m blind in my opinions, a literal blind person’s words would be better in terms of judgement than my own.

 

you will burn in anticipation of the reviews and comments, but die alone seeing no one commenting. As for enjoying the story, don't post anything anywhere until you successfullly have a backlog, because you'll get tired of writing everyday so fast you won't even know what happened.

 

then the haters come and you end up depressed etc and quit seen it happen way to much, it still reminds me of what that 1 author said, the more haters you have means your doing something right so as long as you continue having haters you should be fine

 

To me I like reading the story, but that gets boring really fast since I'm the kind of guy who likes to do things as best as I can and because of that I take to much time writing and reading/editing. Thinking about important plot points and cool battles and fights motivates me though.

 

I am too blind visor gets in the way. I have a little companion in my head who handles all the typing and editing for me too haha.

lol, kidding... or am I??? *shifty eyes*

when it comes to rereading my stuff, I will always find things I am not so happy with. its the consequence of continuing to change as a person and grow as an author while my story remains a frozen snapshot of a moment in my past. If its things that make me feel stupid, like grammar or typo's or a dodgy sentence structure, then I may make minor edits to tidy it up but as a whole I will not touch the flow of the story or the choices/directions taken by the characters.

It's also quite rewarding and gratifying to look back at your old pieces and think "how far I came since then" or "ah yes, at that time my thoughts were like this. I have(/haven't) changed so much." and "I should try doing this again but instead of like this I would do that and repaint the scene for the readers".

 

Hmmmm... It depends for me.

If I plan things out too much, I tend to hate it because the way it comes out doesn't quite fit with what I planned... If I just wing it though, I tend to like the outcome quite a bit, I have fun reading it overall!

It's specially nice to read really old stuff, because I can see I got better! It's nice seeing yourself progressing! \(^^)/

 

Yes, it's fun to see your idea turn into a novel, especially if it turn out great.

No, because you have to re-read it over and over again to find any mistake, grammar, vocab, and rewrite it all over again.

 

*nod nod nod*

Re-reading is a real pain! I hate proofreading! >.<

Someone needs to do it though...

 

proofing was my initial field of expertise. if there's one thing I find easiest and one thing I found hardest, easiest was proofing and editing, hardest was writing and being satisfied with my choice of diction T-T

 

*usually releases unproofread texts*


I don't mind editting/proofreading that much tbh... As long as it's not something I wrote, when I write things, I want them live as soon as they're done! >.<

 

For novels I've actually completed, they were very poorly written (since I was trying to write as fast as possible), so the idea of going back to re-read them makes me cringe.

I don't mind re-reading my shorter works though, because a lot more effort and planning and editing went into them.

 

Oh oh! I get this feeling of trying to write too fast makes them bad! >.<

I usually just write whatever comes to mind and wing it, but I definitely get unhappy with the result if I try rushing it for one reason or another.

 

some of my more satisfying pieces (and the only ones shared so far) were all written spontaneously and posted after about 40+minutes of double checking and editing. All my more planned out long stories have not left my vault yet until I am happy with the entire setting.

 

Writing spontaneously is nice~

I usually do that, it's surprisingly easy once you get to it, gives a really nice feeling! \(^^)/

Double checking and editing though...

 

Or you finally get a comment, excitedly read it, and then realize it's just a spam bot trying to sell you a watch.
----
'do you enjoy reading your own novel?'
I haven't written enough lately to say either way.
I wrote the beginning to something a long long time ago, and rereading it doesn't make me cringe, because it's nostalgic.
Also, maybe because almost no one read it, so I don't have to worry about embarrassment *laughs and cries at the same time*
Or maybe because I was very sleep deprived when I wrote it, so I have an excuse to keep the cringe away.
I don't know.

 

I think a nice way of doing it is to write on the Community Creations and advertise it to the people you're close to! You're definitely going to get comments like this! \(^^)/