I don’t know if it’s an effect of growing up or an effect of growing up during these trying ass times but sometimes it feels like that spark of creativity is gone (or at least incredibly diminished).
Went back and read one of my older stories from a few years back and I gotta say, it’s striking how entertaining and creative I found it, and when I think to anything I written recently, it’s depressing how dull/uninspired it is.
Quite the contrary for me. I’m fond of what I did as a kid/teenager, but I’m proud of the improvements I made growing up.
It’s also because my tastes changed a lot after my 20s and I don’t really recognize my younger self’s works as “good”. But as I said, I’m still proud of the commitment I put into them, and I sometimes go back and attempt to improve them and make them align to my current knowledge and sensibility.