I used to be so bad at writing emotions, really. Of course, I was pretty young, so, I'm inclined to just sweep everything under the rug.

Interestingly, though, a lot of the stuff from the Random Crap Dump has mutated, grown new legs, and crawled into the current group of stories. One universe that I'm working on right now is in mach six, and I'm fairly certain that one of the characters in it has been with me for the past ten years, though a bit different now than she used to be. (For that matter, her husband's been around since I was at least thirteen, but considering that he is no longer the stereotypically sexy elven hunter and he got a name and a back-story that aren't stupid and actually exist, respectively, he's changed quite a bit.)

I had some fun with the springhole Mary Sue litmus test the other day - something I wrote in the fifth grade, which involved the young heroine defeating laser-weilding baddies with a suit made out of tinfoil. Believe me, I swear I didn't know anything about how lasers worked at the time. I think the final score (before they updated the test, so not the other day) was somewhere north of 100. And do you know what? "Redwing" still scored less than Bella Swan. I went from being mortified that I still had that computer file to retroactively proud of my middle-school self. I have proof now that even at the age of eleven, I could write a less sueish and more feminist character than Stephanie Meyer. :)

The realization that, of the five pieces I'd written so long ago, three were irredeemably awful honestly motivated me to challenge myself to do better than... that.

Oh, certainly- the fanfics I used to write back when I was a hyperactive lad of thirteen...

A good deal of my nervous tissue contemplates suicide as I remember it. *Shudders*

My typical offenses result from thinking I'm being clever when I'm really, really not: baffling leaps of logic, overwrought metaphors and similes, bizarre sentence structure, etc. I don't always see it right away, because at the time I know what I mean, but then months later, I'll re-read a particular passage, cringe, and wonder what the hell was wrong with me.

It doesn't help that I occasionally like to hint at things without overtly saying them, like planting Easter eggs for anyone paying enough attention. It does not always work. >.> Hints that are subtle and blend in with the regular narrative are good. Hints that stick out from the regular narrative and are confusing are not.

My writing mantra these days: tell it like it is; say what you mean; either tell the audience or don't; keep it simple, stupid.

~Neshomeh

I've recently stumbled upon my old scrapbook. Did it give me a shock... There were some nice pieces of writing, though, but if remember correctly, those paragraphs were written and rewritten dozen of times before I was satisfied with them enough.

As for other stuff... first try at serious writing - it was supposed to have twenty main characters and I just kept adding and adding every single idea that crossed my mind. Then came the Big Crash (aka, my computer got fried) and that piece of WTF was gone.

Next thing? A story about werewolves, with total lack of understanding about characterization and trivialization of slavery. Yeah... I scrapped it.

There were some more jewels in the various scrapbooks over the time, but I can't think of them right now. Not like they are important, anyway.

My usual trick is writing characters into situations that they'd need a deus ex machina to get out of, and only realising that too late. Then I have to try and pick apart the story to see where I have to take it back to, before I can continue writing again.

Like that Hetalia/HP fanfic I wrote. It was good for a fourteen year old, maybe. But it kinda makes me cringe now.

The only good thing in there is that the Nations mostly blend in with the Potter canon...? Mostly???

It usually happens during late-night writing sessions. The next morning, I look at my stuff and say:

"Since when can flight-rocks be used as personal flotation devices?"

That's why a good writer does several drafts before publishing anything to make sure that they've got their work all polished up.

No sweat, it happens to all of us.

EXCEPT ME BAHAHAHAHA - I am such a bad liar.