Digging up old stuff

Hmmm. I remembered that once, a rather looong time ago, I started writing a series of short stories/a novel. So I searched for it in my laptop and found it. Oh boy. I cannot tell you how bad a writing it actually is. *giggle* I do like some of the ideas there, but much of the text itself sounds stilted, artificial, pompous. A striving for the epic when in fact there is no epic to be found there. :P Three years is a long time to grow up and become more sophisticated. If only I would have refined my skill all the while. :D *amused*

I am on the verge of writing something - either poetry (which I have not done in months or so) or even a short story, if I can get my hands on a decent topic. (Which is, by the way, the hardest part - for me at least.)

And here is an excerpt (I hope I nailed one of the worst):

       ‘Men of the Aellin, your country is in peril. Will you leave it to be destroyed, ravished like a defenceless lady in the woods? Will this country be left to crumble and fall in ruin before its time? I say “nay”, for else you would not have come. Westward lies your fate. Do not be reckless in warding the boar off. Good speed and good luck unfailing. Let no arrow miss its mark!’
        When Griffith finished his speech the men lifted their bows and cried as one: ‘Haste unfailing and luck never-ending!’ Then they mounted and were gone.

They've gone, and good riddance too. :P I'm especially 'fond' of the "defenceless lady in the woods" comparison. Gets me in an exasperated-in-an-amused-sort-of-way every single time.