One other part about the move I made that day was important: I didn’t ask myself to stop caring entirely what other people think. I didn’t try to stop wanting praise, lots of readers, plenty of blog comments, a positive reception from the audience. I didn’t give up on wanting the magic of human connection that can happen between a writer and a read

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I had this obscure fear of putting myself out there, and I began to feel that it was holding me back—from getting people to read my work, of course, but potentially also from even writing in the first place. I had somehow internalized this idea that to seek attention, to seek an audience was craven and base; if I did so, I was debasing the pure and... See more