It is time once again for my monthly posting for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG). If you haven’t already clicked into some of the fabulous blogs that participate, click the image above. We have several amazing co-hosts for the February 4th posting J Lenni Dorner, Victoria Marie Lees, and Sandra Cox. Go visit them!
The optional question this month is: many writers have written about the experience of rereading their work years later. Have you reread any of your early works? What was that experience like for you?
I have reread some of my earlier work within a year or so of writing it, and oh boy! I did not enjoy the messy beginning of my writing journey. I haven’t read my early stuff recently, but I do foresee having to go back and review my first book in the next year or so. I love the idea so much, but I need to rewrite aspects of it to attempt to give it life again. I will need a lot of coffee and chocolate to get through the process when it happens. That’s it for me on this brutal question. Next up, a couple of news morsels.
You have seven months to get your Mothman costume ready. https://www.npr.org/2025/10/01/g-s1-90648/mothman-festival-point-pleasant-west-virginia
This discovery seems cherry-picked for an epic fantasy story. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/rare-medieval-seal-discovered-in-uk-is-inscribed-with-richards-secret-and-bears-a-roman-period-gemstone
I leave you with a song. Enjoy, and I’ll see you next month.
kimlajevardi 
It’s amazing what we see when we look at our writing with fresh eyes.
Hard agree! I’ve read over passages I thought were absolutely brilliant when I wrote them, and when I read, I’m like—meh.
One year – but what a year… Reading early work, sometimes cringeing, I started to think about the clothes we were wearing.
Currently working in a way which could be asking for trouble. Just before the pandemic, we started to write contemporary rural crime, encouraged by Nicci French. Various rivals for our time got in the way, back in harness, believe we can do this and enjoy the writing too. . How contemporary ? Realistically, we can’t hope to have every aspect of life up to date… Unless a property was completed yesterday, a survey will always find something noup top the latest standard.
Contemporary rural crime sounds interesting.
Funny how just the passage of a year can affect the quality of our writing so much. And our ability to see bad writing!
As long as we consistently develop in that year.