Almond in Flower

Isn't it the reverse? Harder just means you're more self-aware, I think, and self-aware means you're getting better. Even if it doesn't feel better, from where you are right now. And I do think that the stuff you're writing now is much better than you were writing then. More mature, at any rate. (The trouble with improvement is that often people can't see and/or appreciate it until your your new voice has fully come into its own. Voices in transition sometimes feel unwieldy to the reader, and they can be hell to write. Or at least, that's what I've noticed in my own experience. But the end result is very, very much worth it.)