The Problem With Writing Without Courage...(aka: the cost of caring what other people think)

January 3rd, 2009; 6:56 PM

Current mood:frustrated

It seems so often, that the hardest thing is writing something real and authentic. Because what if you did? And what if they read it? Would it be understood as you mean it? Or would it be twisted and made out to be a bad thing? Or what if you were in a bad mood when you let off some steam writing but have now had time to reflect upon the circumstances and have come to rest in a different place with it? What then? I find these questions and fears facing me each time I set down at my computer, prepared to write something real...but then ending up writing something vague, watered down, and inoffensive. Something that could have meant something to someone but ended up meaning nothing to everyone. Literary pablum. I am lost in the world of mundane fears and literary pablum. Perhaps my courage will stick with me long enough, one of these days, to write something that will change my reader in a good way. Soften a heart, make someone laugh or smile, or just simply make someone feel like the fears, joys, and pains that we go through...are somewhat universal and that we are not alone in these experiences. Who knows?