Your Worst Writing Moments (A Non-Depressing Thread)

[Moonpearl]

I have a GL story hidden in the depths of my brain...

I wonder if it will ever make it out alive.
Then maybe I can include it in this thread.

We do have a fairytale anthology event coming up, if you'd like to join us for some writing fun~!

 

[Maple-Leaf]

We do have a fairytale anthology event coming up, if you'd like to join us for some writing fun~!

Hmmmmmmm

I can only imagine mine to be a shame of all yuri kind but eh, maybe I'll give it a shot for practice

 

[Deleted member 29316]

As I am not a native English speaker nor writer, I struggled with my tenses badly. I was so confident with my stories back then, till I received a helpful review correcting me about it.

Imagine the horror of going through 200k words and 3 volumes just to correct my mistakes ??

 

[Deleted member 29316]

I have a GL story hidden in the depths of my brain...

Come my brethren, fall in to temptation. Write that GL story! ???

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Note: To make it as clear as possible, don't give me copies of your most hated reviews or try to laugh about readers you don't like. That's the opposite of what this thread is for. Be humble and roast yourself, please.

As authors, it's really easy to get upset when something goes wrong with our writing and to hyperfocus on it and tell ourselves that we are failures. But failure is a requirement for art at all levels and learning to be comfortable with that is a core skill required to grow as a creator.

So, this thread is in celebration of when things go wrong. Please share your stories of messing up big time, You've Been Framed style.

I will start us off with a very small selection of the many, many, many times I have done the writing equivalent of trying to kick a ball and landing on my ass instead.

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Story #1:
Back when I was 9 or younger, I wrote a 50 chapter novel for fun. It didn't actually conclude after 50 chapters, it's just that I gave it to my dad to read and he mocked it so much that I deleted it and gave up writing for a few years. To be fair to him, it was a masterpiece of comedy and should have been sent to a printer to be immortalised, so bad was it.

I was actually so young that I believed that thirteen year-olds were practically adults, so that's how I tried to write them. The whole "plot" was about an alien girl who was found out by her medieval village, chased into a modern-yet-not other world, briefly became a baker, found a boy who was being abused by his mother who then committed suicide and became a vampire to follow her back to the other world, and then...

Actually, there really was no coherent narrative. I also forgot that the village was angry at her, so they randomly welcomed them both back with open arms. Later two other kids committed suicide for no reason to join them as zombies too. There was a lot of unnecessary suicide. Apparently it was because I read a lot of edgy YA but didn't really understand what the edgy bits were supposed to be for.

The bit that really did it for my dad was when I forgot the word "priest" and thought that "pope" was a good substitute, which resulted in Pope John Paul II galavanting about a medieval village blessing thirteen year-old vampires and encouraging people to break the church windows with snowballs so they could be replaced yearly.


Story #2:
Does anyone remember songfic? Actually, do people still make songfic? That's the type of fanfiction where you take the lyrics of a song, use it to inspire a fanfiction, and then punctuate every part of your story with a line from the song, so everyone knows exactly what part you're on. Basically making a music video with writing, except cringy as hell and no one but you will ever like it.

Even as a kid, I really hated songfic. With a passion. But one day in primary school, we were given one of those "write your own creative story" tasks, and I really had no inspiration or desire to write that day.
To save my brain, I decided that I would challenge myself by writing a songfic with my OCs. It's a writer's privilege to try their hand at every type of story, is it not?
So I chose "Break Up" by Kim Sozzi (Cascada Remix). You know, "We should break up, 'cause baby I love when we kiss and make up (cue dance music for a minute)". This one:

This song is entirely about wanting hot make-up sex, but I was a kid and I just really liked the beat. Never mind the fact that there is 0 plot to this song: I just wrote about my male demon prince singing the lyrics from the top of a roof to his demon-hunting love interest and making her all confused and scared until he jumped down and forcefully stole a kiss from her. Sexual assault is hot guys - any little girl will tell you that!

It was so bad that the only feedback the teacher gave me was: "See me after class."
To this day, I really wonder what she was going to say to me. Was she angry that I didn't try? Confused that the "plot" made no narrative sense? Concerned that I clearly didn't understand the importance of consent?
I have no idea, because I was so cba that day that I walked out the door for break time instead and she never caught me or called me back, ever.


Story #3:
This one comes from when I was 14/15 and was playing a fantasy RPG that my friend and I made. (It's still going to this day and we're actually on the sequel, but this was really in its early days.)
At this point in my life, I was starting to unlearn all my internalised misogyny and I obviously wasn't that far along on my journey. I thought I was done, though - like, completely nailed it, no sexism from me ever again, I was the queen of unproblematic.
lol

Anyway, I really wanted to create a shamelessly crass, casual, sexually empowered woman - think a cross between Inuyasha and Miroku, but as a woman.
But I felt like I had to justify the fact that she "behaved like a man". So, I wrote that she was actually born a boy, but her parents lost a bet with a witch when she was a baby and the witch turned her into a girl. Her parents then died and she was raised by a distant aunt, so she grew up not knowing that she was "actually a man" until she was about twelve.
The worst part is that I was exactly the kind of tomboy I was trying to make this woman be, but the fact that my existence didn't need justified didn't occur to me at all.
To be clear, this was not my attempt to make commentary about trans people. It never even entered my mind. Maybe it could have been a "better" trainwreck if I was being willingly shit, because then my friend could have fought me about it, but I was just straight up hurting myself in my confusion.

Bless my friend, she tried. She gave me such a wtf look. She gently asked me if I didn't find that a bit weird. She really tried to express, without hurting my feelings, that I was writing utter baloney. I clearly cared a lot about this though, and she didn't want to risk a fight.

It was only after she was thoroughly written into the story and past the point of editing that I realised that I'd fucked up. To this day, she exists, being one of our best characters and yet a lasting testament to one of the stupidest moments in my life. I live daily with my mistakes.


Story #4:
Same game, same time period. I had a little prince who was a sorcerer (he's now a king with kids of his own). His teacher was the ghost of his ancestor who was killed by the goddess in this really dramatic, miserable way and, for extra tragedy, that was because a downside of magic is that the entity you contracted with would eventually get bored of you and lead you to your death for its own entertainment.

As a result of being a sorcerer, the boy was supposed to be more mature, extremely wise, and also have a strong intuition. He came to his knight one day and begged him not to leave him alone, because he felt that danger was coming and that he wasn't going to survive it. (Danger was coming. He was going to survive. This was just for drama.)

The knight (my friend's character) has no time for that nonsense (because I was always trying to create angsty shit) and puts him back to bed. But I wanted to make him feel guilty so, as he was closing the door, I hit him with this line:


The "man in the tower" was supposed to be a reference to his teacher, who was put in the tower "for protection" and had to wait knowing that he was actually going to die there. I thought I was being really poetic. Super heartwrenching.

My friend stopped the game just to ask me if I could please not.

Jokes on her I killed him in a really dramatic way in the sequel and it was genuinely heartbreaking before I retconned it

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So now you've heard four of my horror stories, it's time for your own. Don't be shy~! Better to laugh than cry.

I can honestly say I've never written anything I regret. Seems kinda redundant to put something out there if you are going to later regret writing it. I've written things I know I could have done better, but it's not like I ever wanted to go back in time and delete or do it different.

Maybe I see if I can edit in more but that's it.

 

[Moonpearl]

I can honestly say I've never written anything I regret. Seems kinda redundant to put something out there if you are going to later regret writing it. I've written things I know I could have done better, but it's not like I ever wanted to go back in time and delete or do it different.

Maybe I see if I can edit in more but that's it.

It's not really about regret, it's about self-awareness. I don't regret writing any of those things because they make for funny stories, and because they helped me to grow as a writer.

But I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't realise that those were examples of absolutely awful writing.

 

[Maple-Leaf]

It's not really about regret, it's about self-awareness. I don't regret writing any of those things because they make for funny stories, and because they helped me to grow as a writer.

But I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't realise that those were examples of absolutely awful writing.

Someday i'll look back on the story I'm working on and cringe so hard my wince will reach my earlobes. But for now, it's only a discreet presentiment.

Writing a book is like punching yourself but with delayed pain.

 

[Moonpearl]

Someday i'll look back on the story I'm working on and cringe so hard my wince will reach my earlobes. But for now, it's only a discreet presentiment.

Writing a book is like punching yourself but with delayed pain.

You might get lucky and really love it, actually. I sometimes read some of my older stuff and get depressed that my writing appears better to me then than it is now.

I don't think that's really the case, though. It's all about perspective.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Its not a bad writing but about how i made my comic story of my parents.

Our teacher made a project to which we were to draw a comic about our parent's love life. While it was a simple task, i was confused since my parents never told me how they fallen for each other.

The other kids had their own romantic story of their parents except for me and when i ask my own parents.

Well, we basically met up in college. And thats it. No fancy meeting, now love blossoming and no events happened in their relationship.

'F-fck.' was the thoughts in my mind as i basically have no clue on how to write my parent's love story as i only given one phase and nothing else. To which, i decided to gamble on such BS imagination and wing it.

After submitting my comic to my teacher, she was actually surprised that it was actually good and needed a sequel to what she read. Like i basically did a simple comic that was kinda mixed with manga style as she really wanted a sequel to the story.

I was like 'Bruh, i basically made that sht up, do you want me to ask more info to which another phase from their mouth?'.

So, my parent's story was like this after they finally told me for a long time. They met in college, my mother had someone who like her, my dad was nervous but he manage to confess to my mother and they basically go out which they got married. Just an ordinary love life.

My story goes like this:

My father was just a normal nerd who was kinda friendly but never knew what love was, he met my mother and was always jealous of hed getting good grades. So, he kinda plans on taking revenge when he saw her working part-time to provide her family of... 8? I believe.

So, he began to help her out time after time and adjusting more to his kindness, she was thankful. Thats when a robber was trying to steal my mother's purse and trying to protect it and thats where my father came in and help her out. In the end, he got stabbed and the robber ran away, leaving my shocked mom and my injured dad.

He was fine and the hospital and their love then suddenly bloomed but was interrupted by a rich young man who was actually my mom's fiancee and warned my dad that he shouldn't get near to my mom.

Saddened, he began to drink and knowing that his first love had ended, he just wanted to move on. Yet, he was shocked that the man who was my mom's fiancee was actually in a drug cartel.

Also, in my mom, she knew that she was in love with my dad and wanted to rebel but her fiancee was furious and wanted to rape her but was stopped with someone who wanted to make deal with him.

He didn't expect that my father was planning on escaping with my mom and almost succeed if not for the fiancee pointing a bullet to her head.

I think the the fiancee was kinda drugged and was mad that he wanted to kill mom but dad manage to fight him off, and letting my mom escape as in the end, the cops arrive and arrested the fiancee but my dad was gravely injured.

I just ended the story of both of them kissing in which my teacher ask what happened next.

And so, in the parent-teacher meeting, my teacher asked my dad how was his injury whrn he tried to save my mom and he spat his drink.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

When I was a kid I was a big big fan of that one anime, so much so that I actually wrote a fanfic... The fanfic was god-awful, it was such trash that it hurts to even remember, so I won't. The crux of the story is that I was proud of it, really really proud, so I went boasting about it to my best friend and that friend then read it out of idle curiosity...

 

[xluferx]

I once create d a story so Bad I cannot t belive I genuinely thought it was good.
Like it has EVERY single cliche(Op, stupid power ups, 2d villains, villian related to mc, dark sides, etc) You could imagine and edgyness
What actually baffles me is how retardly dramátic i made it like MC has his girl but gf cheats on him with his friend, so he goes For his friend gf and ended up together with her. Years later they returnn to their old relationship and got married only for the same shit to happen again?
Wtf was wrong with me?
Also I even start drawing a fucking manga about it

I was a fucking teenager.
Thank God one time I realized what shit show that was and I literary burned that story (manga and script) and watched it slowly turn into ashes

 

[MorgueAnna]

Oh this is a fantastic thread. Now I just have to remember something, anything. Also I can confirm seeing songfic in the past. Ancient times.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Honestly speaking, the cringiest moment I had in writing is also my saddest. It was the countless chapters I wrote on a site about characters I made for a Minecraft fanfic.

I was banned out of nowhere because some kid reported me for saying "bruh kingdom hearts is gay lmaooooo" in a general chat and the mod who responded had a Sora pfp. That wasn't the bad part. The bad part was the mod didn't give me a chance to save all my writings first and kicked me out of the site with no warning.

The only memoriam I have for my earnest beginning is a green mechanical pencil I used for writing my rough notes for the fic. The spring is gone, and I've never been able to find a replacement.

My memories of my childhood are fleeting, and that pen is the only sign that I had those memories to begin with.

 

[Moonpearl]

When I was a kid I was a big big fan of that one anime, so much so that I actually wrote a fanfic... The fanfic was god-awful, it was such trash that it hurts to even remember, so I won't. The crux of the story is that I was proud of it, really really proud, so I went boasting about it to my best friend and that friend then read it out of idle curiosity...

But roasting what you wrote is the whole point of this thread~! I think it hurts less after you laugh about it.

 

[gaylolis]

my worst writing moment came when i made a story about some guy making love with a giant cockroach, and cut its body parts and flush it down the toilet, and eat its heart when its raw.

and yeah, i think i wrote that when i was in a fit of anger. the cause was a bit trivial, but it does make me upset.

at that time, i still thought writing contests were a big deal, and i was upset since people couldn't appreciate my best effort, so i end up writing that one.

it end up being appreciated a lot better than my entry.

 

[BenJepheneT]

my worst writing moment came when i made a story about some guy making love with a giant cockroach, and cut its body parts and flush it down the toilet, and eat its heart when its raw.

and yeah, i think i wrote that when i was in a fit of anger. the cause was a bit trivial, but it does make me upset.

at that time, i still thought writing contests were a big deal, and i was upset since people couldn't appreciate my best effort, so i end up writing that one.

it end up being appreciated a lot better than my entry.

Post it. Do it. And make sure you leave every juicy detail of your research in cockroach anatomy in it while you're at it.

 

[gaylolis]

Post it. Do it. And make sure you leave every juicy detail of your research in cockroach anatomy in it while you're at it.

probably not in this site, since it may count as bestiality.

 

[BenJepheneT]

probably not in this site, since it may count as bestiality.

Link me that shit. In private.