ugh, writing is hard

I read this blog post by Emma Newman today: When just write is not enough, which talks about how fear and anxiety can stop you from creating.

Ah, I thought. That sounds about right. At some point a few years ago, writing went from fun to scary. I'm scared that if I write something and post it, people who I like and admire will secretly think it's not very good and judge me accordingly. I don't even know, brains are terrible, I'm pretty sure that all my friends don't secretly think I'm a horrible writer and think less of me as a person. Oddly, this doesn't seem to affect my vidding at all, just fiction.

So that's been a helpful realisation today! How I go from here to actually writing again I'm not sure, but it's a good step. (A couple of wonderfully kind comments recently on the AO3 have certainly helped too, and if anyone felt moved to tell me something they like about something I've written, it would not go amiss.)