When I surveyed the Aliventures readership a few months ago, one reader asked about finding the courage to put your writing out there into the world.

I think this is a struggle that so many writers have – and not necessarily just at the start of their writing life.

It can be incredibly scary to share our writing with other people. That could be because the piece is very personal and shares something deeply meaningful to us. But even if it’s not a piece of writing that makes you vulnerable in that way, it can still be difficult to put your work out there.

You might worry that people will respond badly – telling you that your writing is rubbish, for instance. Or (perhaps even worse) they might respond with total indifference to the work you’ve put so much time and energy into.

Ultimately, some writers never share their work. In some cases, that’s because what they’re writing was never intended for anyone else (a personal journal, for instance) – but I suspect that many, many writers have short stories, novels, autobiographies, or other works that they’d love to share. It just takes too much courage.

Perhaps you’d hope that being published would “cure” this kind of struggle – but I’m not convinced it does. I’ve heard so many experienced writers talk about their continued struggles with self-doubt, plus there are famous writers (Harper Lee comes to mind) who became successful with their first book and then were extremely reclusive.

So if you want to get your writing out there, but you keep holding back, what’s the solution?

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