Back in 2021, I wrote and published one of those oneshot fics that are entirely one silly middle-of-the-night idea. I vaguely remember liking it in the moment that I published it, and my beta had said it was pretty good, but pretty quickly I decided it was too silly and just not well thought out, and sort of wished I had let it stay a draft. It got two comments in the first few days (one was my beta) and then immediately got buried. It didn't get any other interaction for the next five years and is one of my lowest-performing fics. I do my best not to write for attention so I never considered deleting it, but I always felt sort of embarrassed that I actually went through with publishing it, and then I basically forgot about it.
Out of nowhere, it got the first comment in five years. It was a really lovely comment! Brief, but talked about some specific moments and characters so it was clearly not a bot, and the reader had loved it. Part of me wondered if that reader was being genuine, bc I remembered it being not worth the time. So I reread it for the first time in years.
Tell me why I was shocked that this fic turned out to be actually good?? All the things the commenter had liked were actually in there! There were a few tongue-in-cheek moments, sure, but it was way less corny and ridiculous than I remembered. The overall concept was actually solid, and I forgot how much thought I had put into the characterization and some clever ideas to make the story fit together. It made me remember that I do actually write the kinds of stories I like to read. I had tossed that fic in the mental garbage pile, but on the reread, I would have bookmarked it if I hadn't been the one to write it!
Has something like this happened to anyone else?