To all writers, artists, creators,
Let me just pop in here with this little gem of advice.
The you that is looking at the work you created then IS NOT the you that created the work back then.
And I don't mean that in regards to an improvement of your talent or skill; or in regards to the fact that the passage of time does change us all in ways we cannot reverse.
No, the you that started the project is not the same you that finishes the project and every time you step away from a project and then return to it, you have changed and will approach your work as a different you.
The me who wrote the story and the me who is editing it after neglecting it for 10 years are two different people.
And as I break down the sentences and reconstuct them, I do not worry myself so much on the errors they made. I try to ask myself "what were they trying to say and how can I make their message clearer?"
But I don't make a change, I mark my edits as a suggestion. Why? So someone else later on, another me, can look at the work and decide who said it better; the younger and ambitious me, or the older but wiser me.
Every creator wants constructive criticism, but the person who is most likely to not give it to you is yourself.
Next time you have to edit, review or critique your own work, remember that you are reviewing the work of perhaps one, or perhaps hundreds of other people, working across time to add their own elements, experiences and thoughts, many of which you can no longer remember, where the vision changed perhaps a million times, and all they want is the constructive criticism of someone who is older, wiser, and more talented.
You are not looking at your work, you are looking at theirs and are merely adding your small part to it, even if it is just adding a space, or a comma, or a whole paragraph.