Strange question

[African_Love]

Do you get the same pleasure from reading your own work (or writing it, for that matter) that you do from reading the work of others? Do you think that George Orwell enjoyed reading/writing Animal Farm as much as I did or was it just "work"?

[Lokasenna]

Nope - I can't actually enjoy my own work. Because I created it, I'm far too aware of its artificiality. It just feels stilted and awkward...

[Lulim]

Nope - I can't actually enjoy my own work. Because I created it, I'm far too aware of its artificiality. It just feels stilted and awkward...
I agree -- I have many times destroyed my clumsy endeavors -- too embarrassing is the idea that someone could come across it ...

[African_Love]

I agree -- I have many times destroyed my clumsy endeavors -- too embarrassing is the idea that someone could come across it ...

Writing can be frustrating. I think we should stop intentionally trying to create something that's well written or publishable and just write for fun, irrespective of how silly or awkward it might be.

Still, do you think authors who have published famous and positively reviewed books feel the same way?

[Dirtbag]

I think I like writing as much as I like reading. Writing's like therapy and literature's like drugs. I can work things out with paper and a pen and consciously ponder and strengthen my personal philosophy. This refers more to my random writing... When it comes to narratives, they sort of just happen... Scenes appear as if I were experiencing something out of a book, or alternate reality, and I sometimes feel a need to keep a piece of it so I write it down. Reflecting on these new worlds and their circumstances brings me more pleasure than books occasionally... some books have affected me pretty strongly. More strongly than I've ever affected myself. What a strange thing to say... Affected isn't right. It's more like authors have intoxicated my mind.

I'm sorry if I went off topic. I'm always doing that.

...yes, I think he enjoyed it. :thumbs_up

[DanBierce]

I am by no means a great writer, but I often get a kick out of reading my own stuff. There is one poem in particular I enjoy reciting to myself out loud. If I didn't truly enjoy writing I wouldn't do it.

[Babyguile]

Yes, I get exactly the same feelings. That's what I aim for. It's at that point - when I know my work is at the standard of my peers and contemporaries (in my mind) and can be taken seriously and on par with them, that I have achieved.

[African_Love]

I'm enjoying myself with the sci-fi short story I'm currently writing and I don't have to deal with the writer's block I had a couple months ago when I gave up on the other one. It helps to write a general plot summary before hand. I would be embaassed if anyone (in real life) read it and knew I wrote it though, lol.

[balehead]

I enjoy writing, but I intensely hate reading back over my work. I am for ever comparing it to the work of others, which really sinks my esteem for my own writing

[xtianfriborg13]

I don't just get pleasure reading my work, I get ecstatic! And although I've read it a million times, I still love reading it over and over. I think you'll have to learn to love your own work before you can appreciate others'.