I struggled with sharing my fiction with close friends and family for years because I felt like it had to be perfect first, and also because we weren’t into the same things (I like medieval stuff; they, to my knowledge, don’t), so my stories wouldn’t interest them. To me, people were asking to be nice, or because I’ve always been somewhat private about my writing specifically. I wouldn’t mind talking about it — but I’d never send a link.
In 2023 I resolved to start sharing my writing (and stop caring so much that it was imperfect/unfinished), and it was very liberating! Truly the best decision for my creativity. I felt very proud and happy to have started unlearning perfectionism and letting things be messy. I found the beauty in my unfinished stories and started enjoying them as a reader — often wondering “what happens next?!” and laughing because I’d have to come up with it.
But I also noticed my friends and family stopped asking as much about my writing. I guess it became clearer what I write isn’t really what they’d read. Still, I would wonder if they’d ever done more than skim a little bit of my writing now that it was more out there and I sent it to their email, etc. That felt kind of bad at first. Like, really, you’ve been asking all this time and now you have nothing to say? 🥲
But as time went on I got over it. Now I feel really good because I’ve stopped caring whether something is good enough to be shared, or complete. I just do whatever I want and I’ve been having sooOoo much more fun ever since! ☺️📚🌱🌝🩵
Yes, I love this! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Writing is first and foremost for your expression and enjoyment as a writer. Of course, many of us want people to read what we write too, but I think that our enjoyment begets the audience's enjoyment. Not to make another fashion reference, but designers typically design what they like — what they find beautiful and would want to wear themselves. Then they find the groups of people who share the same appreciation and style.
I truly believe that every writer has their group of people, however big or small, who will appreciate their work. It can take time to find them, but you will!
And yes, publishing the unfinished work is so hard, but valuable. It's a great feeling just to create and relinquish the perfectionism! If we waited for everything to be absolutely finished, would we ever publish or share anything?
I struggled with sharing my fiction with close friends and family for years because I felt like it had to be perfect first, and also because we weren’t into the same things (I like medieval stuff; they, to my knowledge, don’t), so my stories wouldn’t interest them. To me, people were asking to be nice, or because I’ve always been somewhat private about my writing specifically. I wouldn’t mind talking about it — but I’d never send a link.
In 2023 I resolved to start sharing my writing (and stop caring so much that it was imperfect/unfinished), and it was very liberating! Truly the best decision for my creativity. I felt very proud and happy to have started unlearning perfectionism and letting things be messy. I found the beauty in my unfinished stories and started enjoying them as a reader — often wondering “what happens next?!” and laughing because I’d have to come up with it.
But I also noticed my friends and family stopped asking as much about my writing. I guess it became clearer what I write isn’t really what they’d read. Still, I would wonder if they’d ever done more than skim a little bit of my writing now that it was more out there and I sent it to their email, etc. That felt kind of bad at first. Like, really, you’ve been asking all this time and now you have nothing to say? 🥲
But as time went on I got over it. Now I feel really good because I’ve stopped caring whether something is good enough to be shared, or complete. I just do whatever I want and I’ve been having sooOoo much more fun ever since! ☺️📚🌱🌝🩵
Yes, I love this! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Writing is first and foremost for your expression and enjoyment as a writer. Of course, many of us want people to read what we write too, but I think that our enjoyment begets the audience's enjoyment. Not to make another fashion reference, but designers typically design what they like — what they find beautiful and would want to wear themselves. Then they find the groups of people who share the same appreciation and style.
I truly believe that every writer has their group of people, however big or small, who will appreciate their work. It can take time to find them, but you will!
And yes, publishing the unfinished work is so hard, but valuable. It's a great feeling just to create and relinquish the perfectionism! If we waited for everything to be absolutely finished, would we ever publish or share anything?