Why it's good to share your writing with others

Living and working as a writer means that your work will, most likely, at some point be shared with the world. But the concept of having your own words, your own writing, out there can be rather daunting.

Most of my life revolves around writing. As a Creative Writing student, writing is what I study in various forms from prose to screenplays and as a journalist, writing news articles and feature articles is part of my day-to-day routine.

My experience of writing means that I have some of my work in the public domain. For instance, WriteWatchWork - this blog - is free for anyone worldwide to read; my journalism for FormulaNerds and Debut Media as well as my poetry anthology are also in the public domain.

When it comes to my journalism, I'm not anxious or scared of it being read by other people because a lot of it is based on facts and is news. However, when sharing my prose, poetry or scriptwriting, I become nervous and I don't like others reading my work because it's my own ideas, my own creativity that's on the page.

As an aspiring author (and now scriptwriter), I know that having my work read by other people is non-negotiable. Readers, directors, reviewers and alike would eventually read my manuscripts.

But it's only recently that I realised the full benefits of sharing my work and receiving feedback on it.

With my degree being online, I don't have the typical lectures that other students do. Instead, I have workshops and group work seminars.

Most recently, I attended a group work seminar where each student sends in some of their work - either prose, screenwriting or poetry. Everyone in the group reads each other's work and provides feedback on it - both positive and things to improve/work on.

I had attended a couple of these before but the most recent one was only myself and one other student, plus the tutor. This actually worked really well because we were able to have a lengthy discussion on both our pieces of work and provide a thorough analysis.

From sharing my work, I was able to see how others interpreted my writing. Receiving their feedback was not only insightful but it made my writing stronger because we each had different opinions and aspects of my work that we would pick out and highlight.

As a result, I was able to edit and redraft with more confidence, making my writing even better.

It is daunting at first and can be rather nerve-wracking because when writing fiction, the words come from inside - that sounds cliché and probably a little bit cheesy but it's true. When we write, we write from within, we write what we know and what we want others to read.

So having that on display and available to others is scary because we never know how one might react. Everyone has different preferences on what they like to read; some love light-hearted romance whilst others prefer gruesome, dark and twisted crime thrillers.

Not everything will be for everyone. But taking that leap of faith and showing your writing to other people can be really beneficial in making you a stronger writer but also more aware of what others look for.

I know that the first time, I was so nervous. I spoke really fast, my heart went crazy and I was hesitant to speak about others' work. But now, I love those workshops because I get to help others and they get to help me.

So if you have some writing you want to share but are hesitant to, trust me...it'll be worth it. Even if you get feedback on things you can improve, it could help you. As someone who has shared their work and also is a beta reader, who critiques others, having fresh eyes and fresh opinions can be incredibly helpful.

Let me know in the comments below if you've had a similar experience of sharing your writing.

Until next time...