Sharing My Work

I’ve never been the type of writer that writes something and then immediately wants everyone and their mother to look it over. I’ve always known that it is an important part of the writing process to have other people read my work and give me feedback, but it has been such a stressful thing to me as well. Through the writing group that I’m a part of, even though we’ve only met once, I’m starting to really see the value in it and also I’m begging to see other people’s feedback for me as not such a scary thing. Sure, I want them to think my work is flawless right off the bat, tell me that there is nothing that I need to change and that I should be in the writer’s world hall of fame, but even I know that something like that will never happen with my shitty first drafts (excuse the language, but that’s truly the only title my rough drafts deserve.)

Without some (okay most) of the feedback that the members of my writing group, I know that my paper wouldn’t have been half the paper it turned out to be. Also the experience of that process and having to give each one of them feedback as well is already starting to make me better as a writer. I’m actually really excited to meet with my group again next week and see what they think about my latest paper. It really is an exciting part of the process once you get past the initial fear of people reading your work before it’s “ready”.