Stop Hiding Your Work

Why Writers Hide Their Work and How to Finally Start Sharing It

I have numerous journals, notebooks, and binders full of handwritten content to share, along with typed documents across multiple electronic file folders. Poetry, song lyrics, children book ideas, and enough content to make several book series. Most of these ideas have never been read by anyone but myself and my son.

And honestly, he didn't really read them like you thought.

He watched me write them or was around when I wrote them.

Most writers have at least one person they trust with their work. I trust my writing to no one else like I trust my son. But if you are being honest with yourself, maybe you do not even have that. Maybe the only reader your work has ever had is you.

This is not a blog about whether your writing is ready. This is a blog about why you keep it hidden, and what it is costing you every single day that it stays that way.

WHY WE HIDE

Writing something down and letting someone ELSE read it are two completely different feelings. Most of us know that. Writing can feel private. Comfortable, even. Sharing it is a gutsy thing and the anxiety leading up to it is real.

Writing is hard enough on its own. When you add other people into the mix, you introduce judgement, expectations, and all the self-doubt you can put into one draft.

For many writers, particularly new writers, the craft has not settled into its skin yet. You are still finding what works rhythmically for you. Sentences, paragraphs, structure, chapters, and full books will eventually form into something that feels right. But when you are just starting, putting something in front of someone feels like showing up to a test you did not study for, knowing everyone else did.

What if it has too many mistakes? What if they don't understand what you wrote? What if the words sound strange leaving my head and coming out through my fingers? What if this is too much? Or not enough? What if it's too long? Or too short? And just like that, one question pulls you into the next, and the next, until you have talked yourself out of sharing anything at all.

That fear may linger until you have the courage to go back and edit it.

You revisit the draft a dozen times and rewrite parts of your content several times. You hesitate every time you think about submitting it. Then after that, you close the folder and forget about it until the next time it's on your mind.

Since there is always more than one edit, there is more time to question yourself before you force yourself to hit the submit button.

The writers who share their work are the ones who overcame the fear of sharing it.

The more you write, the easier writing starts to become. Suddenly your words start to look like a sentence. Entire paragraphs become blocked out. Something that once was pages full of single-lined thoughts slowly started to form into real scenes that people would want to read. And the more you share, the more you learn. Sharing shows you what your readers connect with, what confuses them, what feels off, and what they want more of. You cannot get that from a folder.

The longer you wait, the more your writing accumulates into something that never gets seen.

THE SAFE ZONE

Most writers have a small group of people they will show their work to before anyone else. Family, friends, or the teacher that made you enjoy writing in high school. That's your safe zone and there is nothing wrong with letting your work hide out there, to an extent.

Sharing your work with someone you trust lets your writing sink in before anything else. If they know your story like my son knows mine, they will catch the plot holes or the missed words between thoughts.

But what happens when your writing only ever reaches one or two people?

It becomes a comfort zone. You stop pushing the work forward because the only feedback you get is gentle. Gentle does not always tell you what needs to change. It becomes a glass ceiling. The work can only go as far as the people in that zone, which means it never reached the reader who needed it. It creates diminishing returns. The longer your writing only ever lives inside of that small, safe zone, the less it grows, and the less you grow with it.

Over time it becomes a sunk cost. Years of writing stacked in boxes and folders, and the more time passes, the harder it gets to imagine doing anything with any of it.

The safe zone is not the problem. Staying only inside it is.

The people who love you most are wonderful readers. But they were never supposed to be your only ones.

ONLY ONE STEP AWAY

Do you have to send your manuscript out into the world tomorrow? No, but if the thought of sharing anything you write makes your anxiety soar, you can back away for the time being. Try calling someone you trust, take a walk, or find another way to clear your mind and come back to the manuscript when you are ready.

Depending on what type of writer you are identifying as, one of these three categories might catch your attention.

If you are a blogger at heart, or even if you have never considered it before, try starting there. A reflection from last year, a chapter you wrote late one night, a thought you have typed and deleted and typed again. A blog gives that writing somewhere to go. It reaches real people, and it speaks for itself before you have to say a word. If you need help figuring out where to start, download the free writing prompt guide that goes with this post. It is full of prompts designed to help you shape what you already have into something ready to share.

If you write poetry, find a contest and submit. Poetry contests run all year, and there are more options than most writers realize. Some are free. Some charge a small fee. Submitting one poem does not commit you to anything except finishing it. Three places worth looking at are PoetrySoup, FanStory, and PoetryMama, all open to writers at every stage.

If you write fiction, Reedsy runs a short story contest every single week. Five writing prompts go live every Friday, and writers have until the following Friday to submit a story between 1,000 and 3,000 words. The entry fee is $5 to be considered for the $250 cash prize, paid through PayPal. Writers can also post for free without competing, and other writers in the community can still read and respond to the work. Runners-up receive $25 toward Reedsy editing or design services. Win or not, hearing from real readers changes how you see your own writing. Find the current contest at reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/contests.

Find the piece of your writing that feels the most ready, the one that makes you the least nervous to share outside of the people you already trust, and let that be the one you start with.

Someone out there is waiting to read exactly what you have been too afraid to share.

RESOURCES

InspireBooks: What's in a Name?

A deep look at why writers hide behind names and what it means when they finally step out from behind them. Read it at inspire-books.com/post/what-s-in-a-name.

Poetry Contest Sites

Three beginner-friendly options for getting your poetry in front of readers: PoetrySoup, FanStory, and PoetryMama, all free or low cost and open year round.

Reedsy: Weekly Short Story Contests

A free weekly short story contest open to all writers, with a $250 cash prize and community feedback on every submission. Find the current contest at reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/contests.

Free Download: Stop Hiding Your Work Prompt Guide

A companion writing prompt guide with prompts for blog posts, poems, and short stories at every level. Available via download here.