Many writers, even the most seasoned ones, admit that they find it difficult to re-read their own work.

The iconic feminist writer of the early to mid 1900s, Virginia Woolf, wrote about the horror of re-reading something after it’s published. She expressed this sentiment strongly in an excerpt from her diaries. “I wonder if I shall ever be able to read it again? Is the time coming when I can endure to read my own writing in print without blushing – shivering and wishing to take cover?” (March 27, 1919). We are not talking here about something that was dashed off in a social media but, very likely, something that went through countless rounds of revision.

What’s to account for this feeling so common to authors? One reason is related to the never-ending drive for it to be perfect that I described in another post, Embracing Imperfection. For scholarly writers and those who write essays, another reason can be that our ideas evolve over time. How we framed something 10 years ago, may seem naive or misinformed now. We may cringe at some of the writing from back then, recognizing that writing is a craft, some say an art, that improves over time with steady dedication and practice.

Writers who are self-conscious about the craft are all too aware that it exposes the content and quality of your mind. Others will draw conclusions about you personally from the quality of writing and the thinking it reflects.

An Off-Setting Factor

Another aspect of the experiences of people who invest a life time in writing can offset the blushing and shivering Woolf described in her diary. It’s a type of amnesia. The experience of reading something, thinking it’s not bad, and wondering who wrote it! The words and sentences gain a distance once they are published.

Take heart, writers. We have to satisfy ourselves with recognizing context (time, place) and that it was who we were and what we were thinking at the time.