Reading your own writing

I read my stories once in a while. I still receive emails about a few so I reread the commented story.

A interesting thread.

1) do you read own stories
2) are you turned on by own stories
3) are you turned on when you write

1) I do - especially if I have been getting a lot of comments and I don't remember the story.
2) Yes.
3) Yes and No. The best ones yes, but often I write the mechanics and plot and then get into certain scenes.

Going back to 1) I run a blog A Voice in the Corner and most of the stories here are published there first - and by arrangement there is a months delay - that gives me time to reread the stories and spot all (most of) the bad writing and typos. There are always a lot.

If you don't revisit your copy a few days weeks after you will have this problem. So if you only publish here I really recommend writing stories and then waiting a week or two before reading them again.

Thanks for the thread and I hope that helps.

DJ Black

I find that DJB is right. Never rush to publish. When you think it's finished put it aside for a time and then go back. You will be surprised at how many typos you find and you will also rewrite parts that you find were unclear or had some other defect. I have a blog too but I don't advertise it. I use it to park stories for awhile then re-edit them.

Since I rarely finish a story at one sitting, I always try to reread what I've completed--and hopefully do minor editing for correcting simple mistakes and even for rephrasing parts that seem awkwardly written and/or unclear--before continuing on to write new material. Even so, a few errors always seem to have slipped by me when the story is completed.

Many of my stories involve the same basic characters over a period of several decades and they're not usually written chronologically--so when I'm reading an earlier story of mine, it's often to check up on forgotten details necessary for continuity, although even so I've made a few continuity errors from one story to another.

If someone comments on a story of mine and I want to respond to his/her commentary then I may have to at least skim that story first, especially if it was written years ago.

Do I find my own spanking stories erotically stimulating while I'm writing them or when I end up rereading them? Generally, pretty much so in both cases--otherwise why write them? As Ricky Nelson once sang, "Since you can't please everyone, you might as well please yourself."

Of course, if someone else is pleased by them too--that's a very sweet 'icing on the cake'... --C.K.

I have always tried to write the stories that I would like to read. Most of them evolve from ideas or fantasies that I've carried around in my head for years. I pretty much write them for myself so that I can actually see some of my own private fantasies in print. From that standpoint, I very much enjoy going back and reading my stories again. But while I write them for myself, I am delighted when someone else likes them. I also appreciate constructive criticism and/or suggestions on how I could have improved on a particular story.

I do enjoy reading my own work, but I don't think I am turned on by it.

There was one occasion when I wrote a short piece and found it to be so poignant that I was crying as I wrote it. This isn't 'turned on' of course, but it did suggest to me that I aught to continue the story so started.

About rushing to publish I can concur that it is almost always an error to do so, although going back to a story one can often find a phrase that one would rather change in the now which might have been perfectly OK at the time. In fact, often these things are subjective anyway, so there follows a sort of tail chasing as one tries to make old copy fit the person you are today.


I have found that when listening to a recording of myself reading one of my stories I find that some phrases sound wrong in the spoken voice which I had thought were fine in the written form. I'm starting to wonder whether this would be a useful - if time comnsuming tool.

It's not a bad idea to get a beta reader to read your stuff first to suggest edits and spot the invisible typos. Of course one should choose someone suitably sycophantic.

1) do you read own stories?
2) are you turned on by own stories?
3) are you turned on when you write?

1) I used not to, but now find I enjoy the stories more in hindsight.
2) Yes, sometimes. Sometimes hugely.
3) Rarely.

What I find fascinating is how my mind works and comes up with the devious twists and turns for the stories.

Like others here, all my stories are road-tested on a blog first.

ChardT, this was an interesting premise and has drawn interesting comments.

As to your point about reading my own stories long after and seeming them as though I'd never read them before - yes, that has happened to me just as you describe it.

1) do you read own stories?
Yes, quite regularly. For various reasons.
2) are you turned on by own stories?
Sometimes, not always, but mostly yes.
3) are you turned on when you write?
Same answer as 2. I have to force myself to concentrate on what I'm doing, and can't if I'm getting too turned on by what I'm writing. In this situation I can take a break and do something else for a bit before getting back to it.

Yes. I enjoy reading my own stories. As others have said, we write our own fantasies, and it's rare that anyone else, however talented, can quite tap into what we ourselves find exciting.

Having said that, there are some of my stories which I never re-read, because I'm embarrassed to have written them in the first place!