4 ms·
I’m a happy commenter and code writer. My big issue with writing prose was that the only good stuff I produced was confessional. I shared it with trusted frien
by nkingsy 5y ago
I’m a happy commenter and code writer.
My big issue with writing prose was that the only good stuff I produced was confessional. I shared it with trusted friends who encouraged me, but I was terrified to make anything public.
I’m so glad I never published any of it. It could literally have cost me my career in tech.
I don’t have an edgy life anymore, but I don’t think I’d risk baring my soul to the world even now as a boring programmer dad.
- mmaunder 5y agoWriting can be a process of excavation if you choose to go that route in fiction or non-fiction, and it can be deeply personal and deeply risky and rewarding. But there are other paths. Try writing on a subject you’re passionate about and follow the journalist’s rule of never injecting yourself into the story. Having that red line may create a safe outlet you might enjoy.
- jacobr1 5y agoThere is always the route of "fiction inspired by real-life." Use your stories, but change them. Maybe add a more coherent narrative that doesn't exist in the vignettes of a lived-life.
- themadturk 5y agoBut there's nothing wrong with writing and not sharing. If the act of writing is the fundamental point of writing (the journey is its own reward), it doesn't matter whether you share it or not. It doesn't need to be shared, it doesn't need to be good. It can be destroyed as soon as you finish it.
- oldsecondhand 5y agoYou could always publish it as a penname, or just change small details so as not to be recognizable (i.e. wading into fiction territory).