Monday, September 24, 2018

Rereading One's Work

My Facebook friends and Instagram followers might have seen my author's copy of MSCI: Magical Crime Scene Investigation, which I received last week. (Naturally, I had to post it here as well.) Yesterday, I reread "Henry's Harness," my short story in this anthology. As always, I'm my own worst critic. I'm not going to list specific examples so as not to spoil anything, but there are stretches where I think my writing craft could be improved and sentences I'd like to rephrase. On the other hand, I do think the setting details work. Most importantly, the emotional heart of the story is there. It should be interesting to read the rest of the stories in the anthology and see how they fit together as a whole. It'll also be interesting to revisit this story in a few years, though I'll probably be even more critical of it by then.

How do you feel about rereading your stories? Are you self-critical, amazed that it turned out so where, or something else? Feel free to share in the comments.

2 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Only once have I ever reread a published story, and that was when my publisher gave me the option of revising my first book. It's almost frustrating, both in what I missed and how I've grown.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

It's been a while since I reread my fiction. (And it did all go through some editing. Perks of being the publisher.) I rather enjoyed reading it again though. It reminded me why I loved those characters so much. Now my Pub & Promo book I read recently as it needed an update.

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