Letting other people read your texts

I remember a girl I once tried to befriend, who was, just as I was, a hobby writer. We both wrote in the same genres, and I was very excited to share and talk about our stories, in the hopes to get tips, feedback and new ideas.

She refused. She refused to even talk about what her novel was about. She had this thick notebook, filled with texts, scenes, ideas, you name it, and she guarded it like a dragon gards its nest. I became incredibly annoyed with her because she would rather die than discuss her own texts.

Showing other people your fictional texts IS a very personal thing. You write a fictional text with feelings you channel into the characters. Of course you're going to be nervous, especially if you've written about, for example, rape. What would your friends say when they'd read a detailed scene of something so vulgar, that YOU wrote?

The way of expressing yourself in text in also very individual and, as always, personal.

But it's so SO worth it to share, if you get the chance.

My novel, the long one, has been read by five people and getting their feedback was worth more than gold. They all liked it, luckily for me.

But ever since I started to write plays I've learned to take a variety of different feedback, both the good and the negative and it is wonderful. And it's at the same time like releasing a burden, you've bottled up inside this text and finally let it go to other minds and it's such a good feeling, even if you're sometimes embarrassed.

I uploaded the last chapter of my English story on the site "archive of our own" today. Over 600 people have read it, or well, clicked it up. SIX HUNDRED. It sounds like... a lot! In comparision to the famous ficwriters, it's not that much, but hey, it's more than one, and certainly more than I expected, concidering I'm a newbie and never heard on that site.

I've gotten comments, all of them supporting and positive. Man, they like my writing!

It feels great to let other people read what you write. It's therapeutic, in some kind of way. It's nice.

The next step would be to let a critic see my new play and review it in the news papers. One can dream.