You will be judged. Dare to write anyway.

 Can you encourage those who want to be authors but hold back out of fear of judgment?

To hear my answer to Dave’s question, tune in to episode 458 of the podcast Living the Next Chapter. I talk about this from 23:10-32:00.

Direct link to the podcast session:

https://pod.link/1607392975/episode/7d35acf28ff2b47132a258f6025c5d50

You can also read a summary of my answer further below.

So, can you take what you just said and put it in the context of an author—not a figure skater—but an author who feels like all of the things your main character feels in your books? Can you put that in context for an author and encourage them?

I think I can. For a while, I visited schools to talk about writing and being an author. Often, it was teachers of literature or Swedish who invited me, and sometimes it felt like they were quietly confessing something. They would tell me they had a half-finished novel somewhere, but they never completed it.

When I asked why, the answer was often the same. It wasn’t good enough. That was their fear. They had judged their own story so harshly, so early, that they never even let it grow into something finished.

That’s such a pity. If this sounds familiar, I hope you won’t stop yourself. Just write. Write it down. You don’t need permission. Yes, publishing a book can be a challenge, although with platforms like Amazon, it’s more possible than ever. But the writing itself, that act of getting the story out of you, that’s yours. Don’t let fear or perfectionism stand in the way of it.

If writing makes you happy, if there’s a story in you that wants to come out, let it. Don’t censor it. Most likely, your first draft will be messy. That’s completely fine. It’s not supposed to be perfect. It’s just the beginning, a starting point you can build on. Some people describe it as getting the story out of your system. After that, you can shape it, refine it.

There is a delicate moment when a story goes from being just yours to being shared with someone else. When I give something I’ve written to my husband, who is usually my first beta reader, it almost feels like handing him a newborn and saying, Please be kind to my baby.

If you’re just starting out as a writer, choose carefully who you share your early work with. Make sure it’s someone who will handle your story with care. Critique is important, but it should come at the right time. Don’t ask for detailed feedback before you’re ready for it.

 And yes, there’s a parallel here with figure skating too. It’s such a beautiful, expressive sport, but it comes with fear of judgment, both from others and from within. Still, when skaters let go of that fear and simply do what they love, it becomes something extraordinary.

Exactly. For skaters, moving like that on ice is natural. To the rest of us, it looks like magic.

Writing can be the same. Your voice, your perspective, your story might seem ordinary to you, but to someone else, it could be exactly what they need to hear. That thing you’ve been living with quietly, shaping in your thoughts, may strike a deep chord in someone else.

So don’t keep it hidden. Let it out. Share it. You don’t have to be fearless, but don’t let fear have the final word. There’s something beautiful in creating something and offering it to the world. Let’s not try to make something perfect or universally liked because that's never going to happen anyway.

To read more about my books, go to my author page on Amazon or to annikarosendahl.se.