Reading My Own Writing

The other day I was typing some of my "wolf" story, and I was thinking, "Learn to write, you hack!!!" (It's understandable; I wrote it five years ago.)

But anyway, then I started reading further, and further -- and I must have sat there for an hour or longer, reading. I really got into it! It's understandable that I would find the story so satisfying; I was the one who wrote it.

Often, reading my own stories is a mixed bag. If I read one soon after I wrote it, I can be critical. If I read one after a long time, when I've perhaps even forgotten much of it, it is apt to surprise me. Sometimes it can even elicit tears.

To write, one should care about one's characters. I suppose it isn't unusual that reading over my writing should create that same feeling of caring about them.