Stiltzkin

I love to read stuff that I write. You could say that I am my own favorite author. For example, my response to this post on the Last Human Being on Earth. After I posted it, I read it several times and edited it several times for grammatical errors (it still has errors in it, but they're excusable). I just really like reading stuff that I write.

I particularly like reading my own writing because I can always follow it very easily. And when I go back and read something that I wrote a year ago (say an old post and an essay I had to write), I can always remember what I was thinking when I wrote it. It's like taking a snapshop of my personality and imprinting it onto a paper or a string of digital bits (depending on the medium). Is anyone else like this, or am I completely insane?

n0nsensical

Yes, I do the same thing; I reread them several times and notice grammatical errors that I have to fix, so all of my posts end up with edited notices below them. It's just not the same in preview.

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"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." --Abraham Lincoln

Stiltzkin

I actually edited my first post in this thread, but the notice isn't there--I suppose I edited too soon after posting.

ngdawg

I tend to do the same thing, specially in the Lit threads and my journal. The cool thing about having the journals is, you can go back,read and remember the frame of mind you were in and see where you are now in relation to those-with, hopefully, more insight and a lot of growth.

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Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

snowy

I love to read stories I wrote. I've actually written quite a bit; however, very rarely is it stuff I will share with another person. I write it for myself, not for an audience, and therefore I tend to think I'm the only one who will get any joy out of reading it. But it is fun to write, and it is also fun to read it later.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

El Pollo

Guess that makes me the odd one then. I've gone back through old e-mails I've sent and I don't even recognize most of them. It's like reading a stranger's mail.

Ishmal

no Pollo, your not alone!

i've been lookin through old threads here on TFP and stuff like that, and all i can think is

"i'm sure thats how i felt at the time"

or

"i hope that made more sense at the time"

if it wasn't me that wrote them, i'd have to reply asking for clarification(sp)

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"Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular."

Journeyman

In terms of old posts, emails or conversations, I read'em and don't recognize them often.

As far as re-reading essays or writing, I can't stand it at all. Books that I like, I thoroughly enjoy reading a second or even third time; but if I wrote something, I don't give it more than a skim before I get bored. Wierd.

flat5

I posted a schematic diagram and edited it about 10 times :-)
I very often make spelling errors and see them later. and edit the post.

Pip

I'm like that too. It's fun to read old journal entries, it really takes me back to those times. I try to catch all my errors before I post, longer posts can take hours for me to write because I obsess over the structure and syntax.

But the most entertaining is looking at old exams and remembering how smart I was.

djflish

I couldn't think of anything worse than reading my own writing.
I generally write stuff without looking at the screen and then just click send/submit/enter and if it has mistakes, so be it

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Europes two great narcotics, Alcohol and Christianity.
I know which one I prefer.

Jack Ruby

Oh yeah. Me too. I don't think I've ever posted a lenghty, reread-worthy reply here on tfproject though... better get to it.

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You don't know what you don't know.

Jinn

I'm definitely "like this", but for me its an unfortunate trait I think. Of my most lengthy forum postings, I dislike none. By the time I've written it and previewed it, I tend to think it is the best post ever written. In especially argumentative posts, I usually believe that its so correct that no one could read it and disagree. Oftentimes this makes more dissapointment than is warranted when someone does feel differently.

Oh well. My writing rocks and I'm always right...

(God I hope I didn't make a typo)

EDIT: OK, maybe not all the time. Something about the cacophony of this post makes me not like it.

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

bobillydylan

Its rare that i re-read my posts but sometimes on another forum i was on, there was certain ones that tickled me and i loved reading them back just to have a titter to myself. But my ex sent me some emails that i had sent her after she split with me. This was over 8months ago now, and to read them last week was hard because all the pain and heartache is still with me. Sometimes it can be a good thing to re-read past writings,it made me think just how much she means to me and what a prick i was!!

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Yes and only if my own true love was waiting,
And i could hear her heart a softly pounding,
Yes and only if she was lying by me!
Then i would lie in my bed once again.

kramus

I am a me-fan, I must admit. I can reread different things written in my sketch books, online, different text documents I write . . . and I often polish up a text document. Then months or years later think wtf, that is pretty convoluted, or has too many assumptions built into it that make it opaque to another. So I rewrite again.

Same with my drawing - while in the end stages of an involving piece I will spend more time looking at it then in drawing - because this is the time where it all comes into focus and pulls together. Plus, I like my stuff

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And now to disengage the clutch of the forebrain ...
I'm going with this - if you like artwork visit http://markfineart.ca

StanT

Not at all, I can follow my own logic and reasoning several months later; but I'm never comfortable with my lack of eloquence. I can always think of a better way to say something in retrospect.

maleficent

My writing skills are so atrocious, that I wouldn't dare go back and reread anything I have ever written, between typos, spelling errors, grammar errors, and basically just shooting off my mouth.. I write what is on my mind at the time... and if I actually took the time to edit myself, I probably would never post anything because I'd be so critical of what I was writing, that I'd never hit... POST.

My journal is another story, recently I found a journal I kept when I spent a two months on a business trip in Australia... and to be honest, some of it was really good funny --least I thought it was... I gave it to an editor buddy of mine... just cause I thought some of it was funny stuff - i wasnt looking to become the next Bill Bryson (though that's a fantasy)and they were honest enough to tell me that-yeah, your writing does suck... Oh well...

I write because I like to, I sometimes think I am funny, but every so often I will catch something I said in an old thread - and think to myself - Damn, you really are obnoxious...

/me shrugs -- all part of being me I suppose

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Stiltzkin

I know *exactly* how you feel! But being on the TFP long enough makes you get used to it--sometimes these philistines will bash your perfect logic and writing but it helps you grow.

Ishmal

thats a good point, i can re-read almost any book half a dozen times and still not get sick of it...

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"Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular."

k925

Now if you could write something that everyone else could follow easily and would know exactly what you were thinking when you wrote it... You'd be a millionaire author. Just like me (I wish).

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I can has furburger?

Suave

So far, I'm not a huge fan of reading what I write. I'm actually (very slowly) attempting to write a rough draft for a novel, and so far I don't even like reading that.

I have a very short and underused journal, which I also don't enjoy reading. I have it solely because I have such a terrible memory that I think I should at least have some way of reminding myself of things I've done or that have happened aside from random real world cues.

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

Hain

Actually, I do not like reading what I previously wrote. I am compelled to change something that I should have worded differently, always trying to make it better, and in the end I criticize myself for even writing it. I border on hating my own work. I wish I had the patience to draw!

Willravel

Guilty. Some of my posts include information and conclusion from days, even weeks of research (in one case, over a year). I have a pretty decent memory, but I can't rememebr everything. TFP works as a great back up memory.

Schwan

I'm like[U] that, but the problem is that sometimes you can go too far. During my time as a journalist I used to spend hours reading my articles and doing a whole list of things I'd do differently. The problem was that since everything was printed on paper, I couldn;t do anything about it, and this, in turn, resulted in stress. Due to the specific kind of job I do, my words or ideas are published in multiple places for tens of thousands of people to see. I have to stop myself from looking back at my projects, because I probably would not be able to handle the pressure.

JumpinJesus

I never realized there were so many people on here that do this.

I often go through a response and preview it many, many times before posting. Too many times, I end up thinking my response is so vapid or pretentious or bereft of any construction that I end up deleting everything and not responding at all.

In fact, I've backspaced at least 5 times already on just this response. It's an odd neurosis, I guess.

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"I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am" - Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses

Charlatan

I have done a search on something or other and discovered threads that interest me... as I scan through the thread I occasionally come across a reply I made a year or so back... It is always a wierd experience for me. I don't always remember writing the words.

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Ronin Tetsuro

I write a weekly column, and I have an editor to do all the editing for me.

Even so, it pays to go back and reread what you've placed down to keep the piece coherent. And yes, I have a huge ego, so I love rereading my own stuff. But I generally try not to rave about my own work, since that constitutes the kind of snobbery I detest in others.

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The best stories are the ones I can never tell.

analog

I love reading what i've written, i'm my own best audience. I laugh the loudest at my own jokes, and I really enjoy it. I'm not sure if that means something about my ego or what but, yeah, I enjoy it.

shesus

I hate re-reading what I write. But I usually do it out of my compulsive behavior. I have been working on my Master's degree for a year and a half now (only 1 week left) but I am so tired of reading my writing. I will go through a 10 page paper about 20 times before I turn it in and then I am still scared that I missed something.

At this moment, I am going through my 60 page research report and changing the verb tenses to past tense. This is quite tedious and I am bored of re-reading the paper that I have already spent months on. I don't mind editing other people's work because it is new, but my own writing is boring to me.

I have already read this 5 times....I hate being compulisive!

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Whatever did happen to your soul?
I heard you sold it

Choose Heaven for the weather and Hell for the company

shesus

It's your ego

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Whatever did happen to your soul?
I heard you sold it

Choose Heaven for the weather and Hell for the company

zakool21

I stopped blogging a while back, but I tend to go back and read them once in a while. However depressing they may be, I could explain it the same way you did - my writing was so concise and honest that I really remember what my thoughts were when writing it.

analog

Yes, yes it is. It's quite large.

Angel

Guilty. I write it, I read it, I re-read it and I edit until there is nothing left to edit....until I read it again!

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In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer.
~Albert Camus