: I'm shy to let my friends read my books All the books I have wrote, I've always been shy to show my friends. I don't want them to think poorly of me with what I write. Any advice that

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It's logical to be afraid. You worry of their critique, if they're going to be rude to you… Hell, if they're going to stop being your friends, just because they may feel offended! (Hopefully not.)

What I think is that you have to trust that they––no matter how they choose to regard your work, because let's face it, to each their own––will stay your friends and keep their professional opinion apart from their friendly recognition of who you are anyway.

You'll be fine. No worries––keep happy that you have something to show at all.

-.. .-

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Nobody else has mentioned it, so I'll be the bad guy. Your grammar is problematic, if this post is any indication. You may benefit from a patient editor. Your profile places you as high school aged. If you have a rapport with any of your teachers, you might ask him or her to do a close read of five or ten pages. If it comes back heavily marked up, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is clear and brief.

If you're shy about showing your friends, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Kids can be horrible. How mortified would you be if someone in your circle leaked your writing to an unsympathetic audience, such as the school at large? Find an on-line writers group so that you can solicit insightful critiques without the risk.

Feedback helps. The positive gives you confidence. The negative thickens your skin and helps you improve.

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You could post it online anonymously or under a pseudonym, on Reddit perhaps, and then if you don't want to, you never have to associate yourself with it.

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You could try finding a local writing group or a writing class. The former can help both your skill and confidence, though they often run the risk of turning into mutual appreciation societies (which still could be useful for overcoming anxiety about showing off your work); the latter can feel really brutal, but it's not so bad when you're mostly dealing with people you don't know outside of the class and who are also having their work scrutinised.

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Some of this might sound cliche, but it's what I often cling to when I'm feeling insecure about letting anyone look at something I'm working on. That being said, even experienced writers often have trouble letting go of their work. Writers are typically predisposed to keeping everything they've created under lock-and-key until it's absolutely perfect. The problem for most writers is that it's difficult (and often impossible) to ever feel as if something is good enough to be seen by anyone. Personally nothing has made me feel more vulnerable than sending a Google doc off to someone, knowing that I'm bound to have dozens of comments on every little detail, most of which I hadn't even considered.

You've alluded to being shy about sending your books to your friends to read, and you're completely justified in feeling that way. However, the reality is that unfortunately, you can't control how people react to your writing. And in a lot of ways, that's really, really good news. Even better, if your friends represent the audience you'd ultimately like your books to reach on a larger scale, their feedback will help you shape future drafts.

So, there isn't really any hard-and-fast advice I can give about how to remedy your anxiety. But, I'd encourage you to be brave and send it off for review, especially if you have a group of friends you trust with giving you constructive feedback (even if it's not what you want to hear). If you have a feeling your "friends" will rip into your work just for the sake of having a bit of fun at your expense, find a different group to get feedback from. Writers groups are fairly easy to find online, and because most of us are of a similarly sensitive mindset, there's a great deal of solidarity to be found when you're asking for help from people who have been (and are still) in your shoes.

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