Reading One's Own Writing

This can be painful or pleasurable, depending on many factors. One factor is how prepared we are to admit we are wrong or were wrong many years ago. Another factor is whether we can stand a few inexplicably bad phrases or thoughts that are revealed after years of experience have taught us new things. I usually enjoy reading my own writing, but I don't enjoy reading the really bad things I've written. I once read a writer's advice not to re-read what you've written while you are writing, because then it gets fixed in your head and starts to sound like it's the greatest thing ever, when it's really not. I wonder if that's true of re-reading old writing. Old writing is a guide to who we were when we were younger. New writing probably shouldn't be re-read until we've had a chance to forget we've written it.