When was the last time you looked at your old writing?
Maybe it's time to check out that old FictionPress account or dust off those diaries under your bed.
You know how they say that whatever you put out on the internet will stay there forever?
Well, for some nostalgic millennials, this is, thankfully, partly true.
I got it into my head last week to try to find my old Blogspot, LiveJournal, Weebly, FanFiction.net, and FictionPress.com pages. Accounts that I had back in high school - from 2008-2012. (Raise your hand if you’re part of this generation!)
I’d already extracted my old Multiply blogs and photos years ago, and all I was able to save from Friendster were photos. But, sadly, I still haven’t found a way to retrieve my Yahoo Messenger archive. (Please tell me if you have a workaround. It would mean the world to me!)
And guess what - I did find some of my old writing! A lot of it is WAY too cringe for me to reread and rework, but here are some that are cute enough and distant enough to share:
From my Weebly. Note the site name “Wannabe Writer” 😁
From my FictionPress. My pen name, Robin Leigh, has quite a backstory, haha!
I also kept a ton of journals as a tween and teen. They were part-diaries, part-writing compilations, part-character and world-building lists, and one of them even became an “anthology” of sorts with my close friends writing in them as well.
Speaking of friends who write - -
Back in high school, I had a circle of friends who were also fond of writing, and we’d “beta read” each other’s work.
We’d pass around clear books, notebooks, loose yellow pad pages, you name it. We’d talk in the corridors between classes, or in the gazebos on school grounds. Later on, we made a Facebook Group: Ze Informal Writers’ Club.
Oh, I remember the thrill of getting a new chapter or poem from them. And the excitement of sharing something new I wrote with everyone else. There was no fear, no judgement - just the bliss of pouring your heart out into something, showing it off, and getting advice on making it better!
And as with most works of art, they were also works of heart.
There were inner wars wrapped in plot points. Dreams disguised in high fantasy. Author inserts with fancy highfalutin names. And…sonnets about the person who didn’t like you back - read by a person who did like you (haha!)
Some of those people are still my friends today. A few of us write for work. And one of them still shares their writing with me and pushes me to create stuff outside of work.
Hard to believe all that was 15 years ago.
What have we learned from this, you ask? Well, three things:
It’s a gift to discover your passion and your crowd early on. Even better if your crowd is your age and not just the English teachers who love how you take essays seriously.
While communities on sites like FictionPress have been around for years, and their present-day descendants are the likes of Discord and dedicated Instagram accounts, there is something unique about going through your budding writing journey with peers you see everyday. And without the pressure of formal workshopping, perhaps? I’ve had my writing workshopped in college and at work (of course), but doing it for a grade or for a living is different, right?
Looking back to where you started, what you used to write about, what inspired you - it seems just “for funsies” at first, but it also calls for some sort of introspection. About your goals back then. What you wanted to become at that age. And how you’re the same - and different - from who you were.
So hey, if you have those old notebooks and blogs, well, it may be time to revisit. Who knows what or who you’ll find.
Have you reread some of your old writing recently? Let’s talk about it (the rediscovery or the writing itself) in the comments! 👇