When you don't like your own fic anymore
Hi, I wanted to ask for opinions from readers about something. I have this fic I've been writing since 2024, and I really love the story, the concept, and many of the things I developed there. I have been updating very slowly because life has just been rough these past two years.
Recently I re-read the first 3 chapters, and I HATED them. The writing style didn't resonate with what I had envisioned, but also some aspects of the pacing and dialogue felt so poorly made; they also had so many little grammatical errors that I have no idea how I didn't see them at first.
I edited them to be more decent, but it made me re-think the entire story even more obsessively than I did before and how I could have developed it so much better than what the final product was; I'm just not really happy anymore at how it turned out. I know not every story has to be perfect, but I feel like a much better writer now, and I wish this story I love so much reflected that.
I'm seriously thinking about starting over. Maybe not deleting the story I already posted, but still post a new, improved version that would give me the chance to really make some major changes to fix the problems I have with the first version.
Would that be mean to the few, very dedicated readers who are already loyal to the original story? I feel kind of bad to be like, "Sorry, if you wanna know what happens next, read this reboot".
What should I do? I asked my dad for advice (he is a letters professor, and always has great advice), and he told me the writing has to be something the writer likes first and foremost, because it's very hard to write something you don't like. And I mean, I think he is right; I think that may be part of the reason I've had trouble updating that particular fic.
What do you guys do when you don't like your writing anymore? I'm conflicted.