Enjoying your own work

[unfair]

Hi, just curious about something.

Do you guys with more experience writing erotic stories, go back and read your own stories for enjoyment?

Theoretically stuff I write should be perfect for me. At the moment though, whilst I can predict what bits would turn me on (and hence hopefully other people), it doesn't do anything for me.

Wondered whether this was the case for everyone, and whether it goes away after enough time. Because I can go back to someone else's story after time has passed and enjoy it again.

[Girlspns]

For the most part, no, I can't really enjoy my own, and it's precisely because I can predict every twist of the story to the point it's like I'm re-reading or editing it instead of just enjoying it, my brain simply kicks into writer mode and tries to write it instead of just read it.

However, there are times when particular stories of mine do excite me, and I notice that those stories are not too old or too fresh, I assume it's because they're fresh enough to be more well-written, but not so fresh that I remember every detail.

And, of course, they have to be part of my best stories.

[unfair]

For the most part, no, I can't really enjoy my own, and it's precisely because I can predict every twist of the story to the point it's like I'm re-reading or editing it instead of just enjoying it, my brain simply kicks into writer mode and tries to write it instead of just read it.

However, there are times when particular stories of mine do excite me, and I notice that those stories are not too old or too fresh, I assume it's because they're fresh enough to be more well-written, but not so fresh that I remember every detail.

And, of course, they have to be part of my best stories.

Yeh that's kind of what I figured.

And not only can you predict it, you also know 100% that it's fictional, so I think your brain doesn't believe the characters as much.

Interesting thanks.

[Girlspns]

Yes, I go back to my own stories. Even though I know exactly what's going to happen, I also go back to others stories that I know what's going to happen. With my own stories I know that they're perfect for me and although I enjoy showing them to others they all came directly from me in my ideal scenarios. Before I wrote after school brawl I could go back to my older and first story but now it just doesnt seem to be wrote as well.

Yeah, that's why a story that's too old doesn't actually work, you just keep trying to fix it in your head and end up not enjoying it because you feel it's a lower quality story, even if most people reading it now would still enjoy it.

[Humilatron]

Well I only ever write for myself. I don't write for others. If I enjoy it then it's enough for me to share it with people and if they enjoy it too that's great. I think I sometimes enjoy it more when others write it because sometimes I'm simply curious as to where they would take a story and there are times where I want to continue a loved story but I often don't end up doing so because at the end of the day I would rather have the original writer finish their piece than have me write it for them.

[edithdick]

I'm mixed on this question. Normally, I don't think I really like a lot of what I have written, even to the point that reviewing a story to make a second draft is a bit painful. So I end up editing as I go because I know that later revisions will likely never happen.

The first story I wrote is my passion project. I stopped writing on it when I had written myself off a metaphorical cliff and had no way to continue... I tried rereading it recently, thinking I could salvage at least the first chapter, but I decided that my writing style and competency have changed so much since then that I am actively rebooting the entire story.

On the other hand, rereading the first book for Extreme Therapy still brings me joy. I don't know if it was for the fact that I managed to write a complete story or the emotional journey it took me to get through to the end, but I really enjoyed that one.

[HumbledBareBoy]

Do you guys with more experience writing erotic stories, go back and read your own stories for enjoyment?

I mean, one would hope! ...right?

However, there are times when particular stories of mine do excite me <-snip-> And, of course, they have to be part of my best stories.

The way I see it, presumably most/all of us write with the goal of playing to our unique, idiosyncratic "hot buttons" and personal proclivities, hmmm...? Even when some of our writing is audience-driven, according to what (we think) "the crowd" wants and/or personal requests by individual readers, I would suspect authors nonetheless remain within their own "wheelhouse" and cater toward their personal muses and unique kinks/fetishes, giving one's stories at least the very strong potential to please that very same writer! From there, I would guess it's largely a "numbers game" because the more stories an author crafts, the greater probability that some percentage of those will land in a subjective "best stories" category, in the sense of the writer getting excited by their own works...

Well I only ever write for myself. I don't write for others. If I enjoy it then it's enough for me to share it with people and if they enjoy it too that's great.

I would say that the above is mostly true of myself, as well, except that I might be relatively more preoccupied with reader response(s) -- in the sense, that is, of a "effort vs. reward" relationship between personal motivation and audience feedback. Other than that, however, I am in full agreement, and I always tell my fellow authors that, if the task of story-craft is to be enjoyable, then you should make it a priority to cater to yourself! I mean, as far as I know, we're not getting paid for any of this, are we? If not monetary compensation, then something else must take the place of that, so as to make our creative efforts worth the time and energy invested; otherwise, what should be a pleasurable leisure-time activity becomes, rather, a burdensome chore. Admittedly, I do personally believe we all write "for others," albeit to greater vs. lesser degrees, but even a reader-driven tale must nonetheless remain true to the author's own creative voice and erotic sensibility.

Back to the main discussion topic, however, I also have a handful of stories from my "corpus," to which I frequently return for enjoyment and pleasure! Not only because of the writing quality, something I value highly and strive to excel at, but also because those stories represented my personal efforts to cater to my own unique tastes and proclivities -- in a manner which other content I'd consumed, from all over the web, had yet failed to achieve. In the ENM genre, especially, one of my very most memorable tales -- from all the way back in April 2021, three years prior -- was inspired by a very similar story which I'd frequently since at least the mid-2010s: The older story, from a different writer, had touched upon several narrative themes/elements which (broadly and generally) appealed, yet in the actual execution, I ultimately found it disappointingly "tame" and underwhelming... ...but thankfully, disappointment turned into motivation, and I let it fuel a creative fire most satisfying indeed!

Ultimately, when everything is "said and done," it's all about pleasing yourself! (Tee hee hee... )

[TheBlushingPrincess]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I have gone back to my own stories from time to time for my own enjoyment.

[Namb]

I have enough stories and they go back decades. I do enjoy reading them again even though I know what's going to happen. My stories relay very much on the emotional impact of CFNM rather than activity. So if those emotions are re-ignited by the story, then it is enjoyable.

It is also interesting to see how my writing has changed over the decades. Some of my stories have particularly good passages and I review them, with my author's glasses on, to determine what makes them good.