: Re: Inhibitions when writing personal experiences I write for myself and have no intention of publishing anything. However, I still become uncomfortable writing about events in my life because I think

@Harper186

Any tips for getting over this hurdle and either skipping over autobiographical writing or making it mentally/emotionally easier?

If writing about your life is therapeutic, do it. Buy a small notebook, write with a pencil and keep an eraser nearby in case you need to walk back your words. Keep it locked away in a safe or drawer when you're not writing so nobody will find your book by accident.
Overcoming what others might think is, ultimately, your own psychological mountain to climb. The knowledge your notebook is nothing more than a collection of pages bound between two covers and cannot talk or draw attention to itself might help.

Or I need to change my approach to all of this?

To write is to bleed emotion. But bleeding emotion is not the same as writing. What you put on the page has to ring true; a reader must intuit why a character feels the way he or she does and why these feelings and resulting actions are believable and appropriate to the character's personality.
People have probably hurt you before. You may have hurt others, intentionally or by accident. Yes, you can write about those experiences. Change names, locations and dates. Or, you could change the events which transpired entirely but keep the emotions intact.
I've never been a wizard's apprentice. I've never accidentally blown a hole in the wall of my mentor's study while practicing magic. But as a kid I once scratched the door of a lady's car when I lost control of the shopping cart I was pushing too fast. My father was disappointed in me and I was ashamed. The actual events differ, but if I were a wizard's apprentice, that's how I'd probably feel after the magic mishap. Different events, same emotions.
Life experiences and emotions are like clay; the stories you craft are vases. From one batch of clay you can make two completely different vases, or even a vase and a statue.

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