If you looked at what I like, be it movies, videogames, books or anime, one would think I am pretty inconsistent. I love deep works that make me think and keep me guessing all the time, but at the same time I greatly enjoy silly action movies, games that don't require much mental effort, a few very, very hilarious romance novels (they are about a time travelling Viking, hilarious, really), and sports manga.

I, for one, don't take the activities and work I enjoy to be an indicator of how consistent I am. I like to think I am consistent on my ideas and views, but I have caught myself applying a double standard a couple of times. Which, as far as I know, is rather normal for common human beings.

Don't be too concerned about it, not only are we supposed to be contradicting beings (really, the left and right side of our brain are engineered to think and remember things very differently), we also have both good and bad days.

You wouldn't consider someone inconsistent if they snapped at you on day when they were in a bad mood, right? It's the same with everything we do, we have days in which the creative juices are flowing and we are full of motivation or the desire to get involved in something worthwhile, that challenges us over and over. And then we have bad days in which everything we do is either too plain, boring or just horrible, these days we don't want to think too much and turn to cheesy movies and books with simple, predictable plots for entertainment. This does not mean we are inconsistent, merely not motivated and require some rest in order to be good again.

Don't fret too much over it. I too have written stuff that I'm not proud of, but when I compare to my recent stuff, the change is pretty evident. I am horribly insecure, though, so don't expect to see anything of mine to pop up online anytime soon.

But really, we are human, we change over time, we are affected by mood and emotions. And we get tired from time to time.

I take it as proof we are alive.

I would say I'm inconsistent in that I change pretty fast over time. I mean, I look back at most of the stuff I've written on the Pit, and I can actually pinpoint the fic where I started to steadily improve as a writer. It was the fic I wrote after I got out of the Happy Tree Friends Fandom. Seriously, that fandom brought out the worst in me, both as a writer and as a fan in general. There was a time when pretty much all the characters I wrote were Sues to some degree, and it was after I left HTF that I taught myself how to stop relying on OCs to make fanfics. There're also a lot of unfinished fics that I probably will never finish.

Back in my early days as a fanfic writer, I was... REALLY annoying. I didn't even realize how squealy, loud, and just plain obnoxious I was. I actually used the "If you don't like it, don't read it!" retort to a flamer once. I got way into shipping wars, to the point of being just... really immature. I would actively seek out flame wars. And the fics I wrote? Ghastly. Didn't realize it at the time. I mean, they were fun as hell to write, and I was very proud of them, but they were complete garbage. I went back and sporked a couple of them recently. It was pretty cathartic.

Same thing with my PPC missions, really. Sometimes I consider going back and rewriting them sometimes, but then I think, why? They helped me get to where I am now as a writer. Having them, having written them, isn't a bad thing. They just represent a lower rung on the ladder that I had to step on to get farther up.

I've also gotten better at writing deliberate self-inserts by making them an honest representation of myself, both virtues and faults, rather than some ideal, unattainable version of me that will never exist. My first self insert was a golden-furred ermine in Redwall.

That's the thing about writing, or about anything, really. In order to be good at it, you have to suck a whole lot first.

I'm definitely not ever 100% consistent about writing or reviewing. I mean, I like to think my ideals are consistent, but as for living up to them, it depends on the day. Like you say, sometimes my energy is low, or sometimes I'm totally braindead, or stressed, or whatever, and "good enough" is the best I can do right then. Sometimes it turns out that "good enough" wasn't, too. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like it's worth trying.

All that aside, even, when it comes to writing specifically, I know I tend to hold myself back from doing as much as I probably could. I get into this obsessive state where I can't think about anything else, and the slightest distraction is a major annoyance, to the point where I'm offended that anyone would dare interrupt me when I am working, can't you see that I'm working? So... I know all the "real" writers say to write every day, but it's hard when I feel crummy, and it's harder when I'm scared I'll turn into a massive jerk. My standards about being a decent human being tend to trump my standards about getting things done.

I don't think that widely varied or even rotating interests necessarily count as inconsistencies, though. Some days greasy popcorn is the best thing ever, others it makes you want to vomit; I think everybody has stuff like that. It's possible to enjoy things even if they don't meet your ideal, and that's not necessarily a contradiction, either. We call those things "guilty pleasures," and sometimes that's a misnomer; sometimes there's no guilt involved whatsoever. {= )

Re. the policy on publishing, I don't think it's necessarily that you mustn't post anything you're not specifically 100% proud of. It IS that you must accept that people have the right to critique it whether you think it's your best work or not, and you don't have any justification for whining about it when it happens, because you deliberately put it out in public. The policy is that if you can't handle critique, you shouldn't post in a place where critique is allowed and encouraged; you should save it for a friends-locked journal, or possibly the sock drawer of your hard drive.

TL;DR - failing to live up to your standards all the time doesn't mean you're inconsistent, it just means you're human.

~Neshomeh