Hi. I've lurked on this forum for awhile, and now it's time to post.
I began writing as a child and wrote until I was 25. (I'm now 37.) Then I stopped writing, for a variety of reasons (fear of failure, lack of time, marriage and children, fear of family disapproval, etc.).
My dad died last March, and a month later I resumed writing. I decided to really give it a go, and settled in on writing flash fiction and flash memoir. I attended a writing conference, where I met a published writer who gave me a great deal of encouragement.
I've had two pieces accepted for publication (both forthcoming), and I'm 150 pages into the first draft of a novel. I now want to devote myself to the novel, but I still have some short pieces I'd like to send out.
Two of them are flash memoir, and they mention the failed suicide attempt/psychiatric hospitalization of a living family member. I couldn't even write about these events until my dad's death. He was very controlling, and basically pretended those things never happened, even though they deeply affected my life.
Should I just sit on these pieces for another 20 years? I really want to send them out, because the experiences they describe are mine, and this will help me own them. Plus I'm a writer, and I have a natural urge to share my work. I'm thinking about sending them to a small print journal that does not publish online; therefore the chances of the family member ever coming across the pieces is very small.
Perhaps I am just being selfish. Any thoughts? Of course, the pieces might never be accepted . . . but I need to be okay with possible publication before I send them out.
I began writing as a child and wrote until I was 25. (I'm now 37.) Then I stopped writing, for a variety of reasons (fear of failure, lack of time, marriage and children, fear of family disapproval, etc.).
My dad died last March, and a month later I resumed writing. I decided to really give it a go, and settled in on writing flash fiction and flash memoir. I attended a writing conference, where I met a published writer who gave me a great deal of encouragement.
I've had two pieces accepted for publication (both forthcoming), and I'm 150 pages into the first draft of a novel. I now want to devote myself to the novel, but I still have some short pieces I'd like to send out.
Two of them are flash memoir, and they mention the failed suicide attempt/psychiatric hospitalization of a living family member. I couldn't even write about these events until my dad's death. He was very controlling, and basically pretended those things never happened, even though they deeply affected my life.
Should I just sit on these pieces for another 20 years? I really want to send them out, because the experiences they describe are mine, and this will help me own them. Plus I'm a writer, and I have a natural urge to share my work. I'm thinking about sending them to a small print journal that does not publish online; therefore the chances of the family member ever coming across the pieces is very small.
Perhaps I am just being selfish. Any thoughts? Of course, the pieces might never be accepted . . . but I need to be okay with possible publication before I send them out.
