Time to toot your own horns, folks. And maybe go fishing for compliments. Links could be helpful, too.

I'm asking you to be as arrogant as you can, as self-assured and in-your-face as you can. I want to see and hear about the shiniest diamond you ever threw down on paper, virtual or literal.

Fanfic, original, academic, whatever - what is the Best Thing you ever wrote, and why?

I'll go first. This tiny little thing right here: Field day - One Shot | DLP (darklordpotter.net)

It's one of the shortest stories I've ever written, but the reviews I got - specifically one from a service member - mean this puppy will probably occupy a special place in my heart.

 

When I woke this morning,
I saw the sky was broken.

Light shone through the cracks
Stars fell through the gaps.

Like a jigsaw puzzle,
Only half-complete.

Jagged lines, shattered fragments
From horizon to horizon.

Broken skies, mirrored in my eyes.​

A little poem I put together in one of my uni classes nearly a decade ago. I don't even like poetry for the most part yet, somehow, these few lines have stuck with me more than anything else I wrote back then.

 

Uhh... Shit. Don't think I can do that, cap'n. I am perhaps notoriously not quite cut out for writing.

Here I was going to say the best thing I ever wrote was when I was trapped, ill, on holiday with no internet. I was half delirious, but god damn if I didn't keep writing. For an entire week solid, morning to night. I ended up with 42k. It was the first and only time I'd ever been able to write without constantly shooting myself in the foot by rereading the entire thing every time I wanted to add a new bit.

When I was better again, and it was out of my mind, I read the whole thing for the first time. Ultimately, it stood up. Not the finest bit of literature, but engaging. Satisfying enough that you'd want the next chapter.

I've certainly written better stuff -- but I've never been a better writer since.

(p.s. If anyone has tips for sustaining writing efforts / not getting caught up in what you've already got -- for the love of god, tell me D: )

 

@Alindrome
The trick is just making a plan and sticking to it. It doesn't matter how much you want to write every day; just pick some quantity that you think you can manage and then write that much every day. Once you find that you're sticking to the plan, you learn what works for you, what milestones you want to hit by what time every day and so on. If you can't stick to the plan you've set, you need a different plan.

 

I've never written anything so idk

 

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "best". If you're talking about quality of the writing, I've got nothing to offer. I am sort of proud of some of the ideas I've written in my collection of shorts, though. Particularly the one about Draco assassinating Dumbledore.

 

For me, the piece of writing of mine that's technically the best would have to be Contractual Invalidation. There is an argument to be made (by me) about specific sections of my quest The Second Uchiha being as good, but C.I. is complete which earns it points, and also doesn't drag on too much. I suppose on an achievement, practical sense, Contractual Invalidation is my best work.

But I'll be damned if Chaos Through Adventure isn't my favorite. I find it very charming, and fitting very well with the source material (that being an obscure Dreamworks movie from 07)

 

Unfortunately probably the stupid micro story I posted in the memes thread a while back.

 

I have a YouTube comment with 24k likes, does that count?

In terms of the technical quality of my writing, I’d say it‘s probably the Sherlock/Harry Potter crossover that I‘ve wanted to finish for five years now, by virtue of it being the only piece of mine that exceeds short story length that I‘ve ever managed to finish a first draft of. There‘s quite a lot of it there, so I had the time to nail down the things I wanted in terms of the voices and the writing, but I was deeply unhappy with the plot as it turned out.

Of my published works on my FF.net account, I’m fond of a Mass Effect short story I wrote an even longer while back. It‘s got a three-part arc in something like 2,500 words and I still quite like the ideas I came up with for it.

 

"Ducks, Dictators, Uncle Fuckers: The Evolving Political and Social Impact of Comedy Films" for a Humor in Film class, about Duck Soup, The Great Dictator and the South Park movie.

Looking back, I'm really proud of a lot of the essays I've written in college. Even though this one was a senioritis easy credit class, I put real effort into it. By far the best title I've ever gotten away with.

Other than that, probably the one where my professor, who had a reputation for being a tough grader, said to me, "Son of a bitch, I've never given an A this early in the semester." Kinda sad that I lost a lot of my work to hard drive failures and tossed the paper copies.

I'll have to come back to this thread if I ever sit down and write my grand memepost shitfic.

 

Probably Hogwarts School of Danger and Disasters. There are fragments/chapters in my other fics that I like more, but as a standalone work this one has the fewest weaknesses, I think.

 

Oh, just pick a post: They're all gold...

Yes, this one, as well.