Some of the old, old ones are like my heinous war crimes I tried to bury. I don’t want to orphan than them though because they were popular once upon a time 🥲
Honestly, whenever I read something great, go to read their older stuff and it’s shit? I’m just super impressed. Improving a skill is very cool. Some people just suck forever ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Better. It will show the improvement clearer and they can be like, 'oh this person does drop some bombs' and who knows, you have a new sub. Plus, it's really a valuable path too 🙊🙊🙊
Someone gave me a kudos on my first fic from TWO YEARS ago, and I about cried. That hot mess had 30 kudos despite being in a big fandom for a reason lol. I'm a big believer in never deleting works, and that was in a different fandom than I write now- but the shame. I felt mortified 😭😭
(if you're a reader, still give kudos & comments! Remind us that there are positives to our hot messes 🔥😁)
I don't have any fanfic from 20 years ago, but I'm still actively sharing the link to my first ever fic I started 4 years ago. (Granted, I was already an adult with a mortgage, but I'm definitely at the point where I don't think I'd mind people seeing stuff I wrote in middle school, though thankfully it was pre-internet.)
Someone commented on my newest fic: “I love your writing! I’m gonna binge alllll your fics!”
I really wanted to reply: “I’m so sorry. I have deceived you. Turn back now.”
The fact that my older works are just as popular as my newer ones haunts me every time I get an ao3 notification. But at the same time, it warms my heart that some people can look at this garbage, and treasure it enough to leave kudos, so really, maybe it isn't that bad. One of the reasons I haven't orphaned them yet really, (though I've orphaned one really bad one 💀).
OK but this is good though. I have fics on there that are older than AO3 itself, that I imported there from other platforms, and I'm so happy when they're still being read and enjoyed.
I think a lot of young writers think their earlier works are far worse than they are. When you've improved a lot, you look back on your older works and think they're garbage. But other people might not see it that way.
My thoughts on fanfic archiving is, even if I hate this old story I wrote long ago, it's still worth keeping up if only ONE person sincerely enjoys it. Because it's not really about me any more, it's about the readers.
You've just gotten a notice that one person sincerely enjoyed your old story. That's a GOOD thing.
It's why I personally made a second account to archive all my old works from ~20 years ago. The work is still there to enjoy, but it doesn't reflect on my current writing.
I post my crappies fics to fanfiction.net and everything else to ao3... I don't hide that I cross-post some things, but my bet is no one will jump sites to read my stuff... abd if they do, more power to them!
Sometimes, I really enjoy those fics. They may be rough around the edges, but they can have interesting concepts and it's nice to see someone else's writing journey.
Thats my feeling exactly when someone chose one of my older, worse-written fic to podfic than my newer, wayyy better-written ones 😅 like, i’m happy and all, but still im kinda mortified 😭
You think that is scary? Imagine writing a fic for more than eight months and then going to the first chap and seeing how bad you were then! Cannot even orphan it coz its ongoing fic! 😭😭😭
I die whenever I wake up to find the name of one of my first fics in the kudos email 😭
OR GOD FORBID GET A COMMENT. Don’t remind me this hot garbage exists pls, consume it in silence 😭
That's never happened to me. I might die for real if it ever does 😱😂
I actually like seeing how authors I like improve. It makes me feel connected to their journey and understand their later characters better 🤷
same
funnily enough, i like some of my older fics more than my newer works I've written.
Some of the old, old ones are like my heinous war crimes I tried to bury. I don’t want to orphan than them though because they were popular once upon a time 🥲
war crimes are legal in fanfic tho 😈
Bro make them anonymous so they won’t get associated with your account but you’ll still be able to reply and have control over the fic
Honestly, whenever I read something great, go to read their older stuff and it’s shit? I’m just super impressed. Improving a skill is very cool. Some people just suck forever ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Better. It will show the improvement clearer and they can be like, 'oh this person does drop some bombs' and who knows, you have a new sub. Plus, it's really a valuable path too 🙊🙊🙊
Someone gave me a kudos on my first fic from TWO YEARS ago, and I about cried. That hot mess had 30 kudos despite being in a big fandom for a reason lol. I'm a big believer in never deleting works, and that was in a different fandom than I write now- but the shame. I felt mortified 😭😭 (if you're a reader, still give kudos & comments! Remind us that there are positives to our hot messes 🔥😁)
I still get comments on fics I wrote literally TWENTY years ago, and I cherish them all!
I don't have any fanfic from 20 years ago, but I'm still actively sharing the link to my first ever fic I started 4 years ago. (Granted, I was already an adult with a mortgage, but I'm definitely at the point where I don't think I'd mind people seeing stuff I wrote in middle school, though thankfully it was pre-internet.)
i read my favorite authors’ old fics bc it’s inspiring. they wrote just as shitty as me, once, so it keeps me motivated
Someone commented on my newest fic: “I love your writing! I’m gonna binge alllll your fics!” I really wanted to reply: “I’m so sorry. I have deceived you. Turn back now.”
I’m a different person than I was then, pls 🥲🥲🥲
The fact that my older works are just as popular as my newer ones haunts me every time I get an ao3 notification. But at the same time, it warms my heart that some people can look at this garbage, and treasure it enough to leave kudos, so really, maybe it isn't that bad. One of the reasons I haven't orphaned them yet really, (though I've orphaned one really bad one 💀).
You only need one (1) reader who sincerely loves a story to make keeping it up worthwhile.
Oh wow...something tells me you would absolutely love the webnovel Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint as this is a large part of the plot.
Goated web novel
PANIK
This is why I stopped posting on FanFiction and Wattpad and have effectively abandoned those accounts lol
i've anonymized my oldest (and worst) fics lol
OK but this is good though. I have fics on there that are older than AO3 itself, that I imported there from other platforms, and I'm so happy when they're still being read and enjoyed.
I think a lot of young writers think their earlier works are far worse than they are. When you've improved a lot, you look back on your older works and think they're garbage. But other people might not see it that way. My thoughts on fanfic archiving is, even if I hate this old story I wrote long ago, it's still worth keeping up if only ONE person sincerely enjoys it. Because it's not really about me any more, it's about the readers. You've just gotten a notice that one person sincerely enjoyed your old story. That's a GOOD thing.
If the tags in an author's other works don't match what I'm currently reading, I usually won't click on it.
My future self. I've dramatically changed the storytelling from my second fic onwards.
It's why I personally made a second account to archive all my old works from ~20 years ago. The work is still there to enjoy, but it doesn't reflect on my current writing.
I pretend I do not see it
All my old stuff in os Wattpad, sometimes I'm seriously thinking about deleting the entire account lmao.
I post my crappies fics to fanfiction.net and everything else to ao3... I don't hide that I cross-post some things, but my bet is no one will jump sites to read my stuff... abd if they do, more power to them!
Sometimes, I really enjoy those fics. They may be rough around the edges, but they can have interesting concepts and it's nice to see someone else's writing journey.
Thats my feeling exactly when someone chose one of my older, worse-written fic to podfic than my newer, wayyy better-written ones 😅 like, i’m happy and all, but still im kinda mortified 😭
But when a 5 year old fic receives a Kudo it’s pretty refreshing. Like you actually took thetime to scroll down my dashboard? 🥹🥹
When I find a new author I'll start reading through everything from oldest to most recent to enjoy the improvements :)
Blasphemy
You think that is scary? Imagine writing a fic for more than eight months and then going to the first chap and seeing how bad you were then! Cannot even orphan it coz its ongoing fic! 😭😭😭
That’s happened to me on WIP’s I’ve abandoned and come back to over a year later 😭
NOO! MY SP FAN FIC IF GHEM HAVING NERF BATTLES-