"Really Good!"

I was wide awake at 2am this morning. I turned on my laptop to find that the internet was down again! It is strange, the feeling of being cut off from the world. Am I really that reliant on the connection with my laptop?

I crawled to the kitchen for a hot water bottle and hot Ribena (my security blanket) and stood in front of my fridge for a few minutes looking at the hundreds of word magnets, to see if anything would happen. Something did emerge, but nothing I care to share here.

Again, nothing I would care to share.

A friend of mine once told me to allow myself to be a bad writer. To put my work out there to be criticised. The worst reaction for me from friends or family is "it's really good!" I don't need you to spare my feelings! At least tell me why you think it's 'really good'! I need help to make it better. I need criticism, not false reassurance!

When a child paints a picture the mother's reaction is always "oh wow, that's really good!" not "the sky isn't green" or "a horse only has 4 legs" because that might hurt the child's feelings... as adults surely we are strong enough not to be hurt by peoples negative reactions? We should encourage them.

Then why do I refuse to show my work to anyone?

Maybe one day...