When I was younger, I wrote a lot more than I do now. I would get a story idea and just run with it. The stories rarely got finished and were total crap more often than not, but I was writing with the dream of being a best-selling author one day. Then I got older and the Internet came into the picture and distracted me from both my writing and my reading, Sure, I would still write, but it was sporadic at best and normally only happened when I didn't have Internet access or got in a rare mood where I just really wanted to write.
Until I joined Odyssey a couple of weeks ago, the last thing I had written was a quarter of a novel for NaNoWriMo last year. When I discovered Odyssey, it gave me the boost to start writing again. It made it to where I was writing something every week, and that has been so helpful to my writing. It reminded me of how therapeutic writing could be for me, and why I enjoyed it so much. It even caused me to go on the NaNoWriMo site and sign up to try writing a novel again this November.
Not only did it get me writing again, but it got me sharing my writing, which is a huge deal for me. I have always been secretive with my writing, and very few people I knew ever read anything that I wrote. When I was writing, I would keep my notebook close to my chest and be very vague about whatever I was writing because I didn't think it was any good. Now, my writing is out there on the Internet with my name on it, and I have no control over how many people see and read it.
The feeling that causes is one of both excitement and terror. On one hand, it is awesome to know that my writing could be passed around and resonate with some other person who feels exactly the same way. On the other, there is no telling what people will think of my writing, and it is scary to think about people thinking that I suck at writing with how much I have enjoyed it for so long. Even with the terror, it still feels good overall to be putting myself out there after so long of hiding my writing, and I am so thankful I discovered this website.
