"These Words of Mine"

An impassioned plea to a Young Lady who's scared to publish her stories.

You wrote you are scared to submit your stories for publication on ffn.

May I say something?

I am, too.

Every single chapter I wrote, I was scared to publish it. Every time.

So I can understand how you feel.

But.

I've gotten PMs that say that this-or-that chapter has saved somebody's life. For real. I've gotten three marriage proposals off of chapters I've written (so, writing may be a good way for you to meet new people, if that's something that'd be nice for you).

What's it worth to you, to be scared to write that chapter, and to publish it, and then get a ho-hum or a mean review? Or to get a really good review? Or no review at all?

When if you didn't publish it, that one person, who thinks she's all alone in the world, doesn't read your chapter that would've meant something to her, and so she checks out, instead, because you didn't publish your chapter because you're scared to?

What's it worth, somebody's life? I've saved lives, writing my silly, terrible stories that mean something to somebody somewhere. You can, too, you know. There are very, very few writers. You publish your story here, you automatically become one of the top ten percent of the members here on ffn.

Write your stories and publish them. They mean something to you. They'll mean something to somebody else who reads them. And then you'll get that PM or review, and you'll know why you did it, even if you were scared.

... "These Words of Mine" is a song by Natasha Bedingfield.