Y'all ever felt embarrassed with your first attempt at writing?

[Eldoria]

My first novel wasn't embarrassing (to me). It just didn't live up to my expectations as a fan of novels (Korean, Chinese and Japanese). Essentially, I rewrote the novel after two years and revived it. Here's the result: click here.

 

[MFontana]

Yeah.
I'd call my first attempts (Also around 15) as little more than literary catastrophes steeped in every possible literary sin and aged for a few centuries in their own ichor.

I do still have them backed up in my google drive, so I can remind myself how far I've come when I start to doubt my ability as an author, but the original notebooks have long since been cast into hellfire as they deserved. (Lost after graduation from high school)

 

[DireBadger]

When I was eight. It was a horror story about what would REALLY happen if Santa Claus were real.

 

[Anonjohn20]

My first story was about time travelling spec ops dudes. My middle school days were so optimistic.

My second story was a revenge quest, coming of age, romance set in medieval times. I'm proud of both ideas.

 

[A.Dot]

I think everyone does and that's perfectly fine. It's scary trying something new for the first time.

 

[Deleted member 167438]

Embarrassment when reading your old writing is simply a recognition that your writing standards have improved.

 

[VanVeleca]

Sometimes I read my old fanfics and wish someone would've cut off my hands when I was a teen

 

[empalgepuk]

Everyone has to start somewhere. But not everyone gets to start somewhere compatible and less punishing.

Writing career wise, I was among the luckier ones, perhaps. Got a decent community online where I could start from zero without getting bullied. Unlike my stunted art career where even the adults around me can punish me for scribbling on my school notebook, but that was indeed harsh pre-internet era. Early internet allowed me to escape those stuck up old folks; they hate reading after all lol.

So I cherish that experience. I won't be ashamed of what I started as.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

The first anyone has seen is MFGR... yeah, I messed it up, but I am not embarrassed about it. It is a learning experience.

 

[Zagaroth]

For my first serious attempt at writing a novel sized story/series of novels, we have my current serial.

My first dozen chapters or so were especially rough, but a heavy edit after 3 years of writing experience fixed the problematic sections while keeping the story intact. It was mostly changing who made what decisions and why, while getting the characters to the same place and making the same key decisions that shape the rest of the story, if with a touch of different flavor and reasoning.

Other than that, I am overall happy with my writing. The technical aspect of my writing has certainly improved, but the story itself is fun and pretty much what I want it to be. There are still a few things that could be improved with an edit, but the story itself I like.

BUT

This is only my first time with a long form story. I have been writing short form for character backgrounds, TTRPG campaigns, and online chat room / RP forums since the 90s. I had a lot of practice already, but putting all of that together into a single long running story thread was certainly a new experience.

Most people aren't going to have 30ish years of related writing experience before trying their first long form story, so these are not typical results.