shacking_up is hosting a classics week, where they encourage people to post old stories of theirs. Well, they're sort of still doing it, today (the 20th) is the last day. Anyway, so I thought I'd play.

I even conned bribed begged asked luzdeestrellas to beta two of my S/R stories that never got the beta treatment. ::cringes::

And I just... I can't do it. I went through and edited So It Goes With Faith and went through and fixed the coding and put it up where the original entry was, just because. And I... cannot post it.

It's just that it's awful. It's horrible. It's possibly the one story that am ashamed to admit to writing. If fandom writing had a scoring system then this story would be tossed with the lowest score. Everything about it, dialogue, plot (and I use the term loosely) characterization--everything about this story--just grates on my every last nerve.

I'm not even kidding, you know. Not even a little. I've been resisting the urge for ages to do a post of Things I Hate In Fiction and at least two of the top three are in this story. It pains me. It horrifies me. It makes me think, you know, maybe I'm just not cut out for this business after all.

I cannot post it on the unsuspecting public! Not if they're going to judge me based on it!

This isn't an "omg reassure me" post. This is me being horrified and other things that mean that same thing.

Am I the only one who feels this way? I mean, I don't think I'm a horrible writer. I don't think "omg yay me", but I don't think I completely suck either. Except, in this case, where I did everything wrong. I've got stories I like (sorta), but none that I am embarrassed by like this one.

Am I the only one? Really? Do you have stories of your own that you love? That you hate? That you cringe at the thought of? Am I all alone in my deep mental issues regarding my writing?

So many questions.

( 8 Things I Absolutely Loath in Fiction of Any Kind, Be It Fannish or Original )

There will probably be more later. You know, when I can focus. :p

ETA 9 & 10 and the usual disclaimer, which is as follows: Yes, yes there are exceptions to these rules. To all of these rules. There are people who can make one of my boys crying absolutely believable, there are times when boys talking about their feelings is understandable, there are times when a really good writer gets a hold of something and makes me believe it no matter what. It's all a matter of what you do with what you've got.



* Except for when it is. Which is rare, yes, but there are fandoms where I find it acceptable. Firefly, as musesfool pointed out. The captain is accepted. The doc is as well, usually. Though really, I think both depend on the point of view character. If you're writing a Firefly fic from River's point of view then Simon will always be Simon, he will never be "the doc".