Anxiety & Fear

I wrote this on Tumblr before I published Triple Threat and I need to continually remember this.

I started writing on tumblr as a way to express myself and show people my work. But I have found that one of my fears is that my friends will read my work and look down on me because of it. Yes it is an irrational fear but it isn’t without a cause. My best friend through high school read one of my pieces of work and then promptly told me it was a bad porno. I am sure you can guess what genre I write in. That statement has haunted me through my writing career. It has held me back more times than I can count.

It didn’t matter that several people like my work or that my mother loves reading my stories (I tell her she likes them because I am her child). It didn’t matter that I have worked hard at my writing. All it took was one horrible comment from someone I trusted to shatter my confidence. It didn’t matter that this comment was made 10+ years ago. 

But as I was writing the blurb for Triple Threat today and thinking about putting it up for pre-order I wondered if I was ever going to actually get over this fear. I decided I was. Why should I fear what someone thinks of my work? I don’t care what people think of me when I am at work or out and about doing errands. Why can’t that feeling of not caring extend to my work?

So I am making a stand here and now. I refuse to be afraid of how people think of my work. If you don’t like what I write that is fine. If you like it that is great. But I want you to know that if you are my friend then please expect to see parts of my work crop up on my tumblr, facebook, and blog. And please know that I’m not trying to offend you I’m just tired of being afraid. I want to show pride in my work but I need to break the chain that held me back. I am done being afraid.

This is very true and as I told someone earlier if you have a fear of something write through that fear. Blog about it, take a stand and kick fear in it's face (figuratively). Don't let fear and anxiety get you to stop doing what you love to do. I refuse to stand down and stop writing just because someone didn't like what I wrote. And neither should you! If you love writing or something else creative don't stop just because someone said something bad about your work.