I Dared to Publish a Story about My Family… and This Is What Happened

Get writing, folks.

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

I wrote a very personal piece for the Medium Writing Challege about my complicated relationship with my grandmother after my father died. I had been working on it for a while, a few friends had already helped me edit it, and I was actually feeling very proud of the result. Finally expressing my emotional contrariety brought me peace and satisfaction, but…

I couldn’t bring myself to publish it.

I didn’t make my grandmother look great in that piece. I feared my dad’s side of the family would come after me demanding my head for writing such things about her so shortly after her death.

However, I needed to let that story out without censoring myself too much. I’m sure many writers here will understand that strange need of giving space to your voice and experiences, to let them roam free and interact with others, maybe even find solace and company with people who have gone through something similar.

So I hit “submit to publication”; it was accepted and published. Then, I went on Facebook, did block a couple family members, and then shared the link to my story. And then I waited.

Here’s what happened:

N — O — T — H — I — N — G

I received beautiful, encouraging messages from friends and other family members, but none from the people I had worried so much about. It was one of those situations in which I realized that if they’d never cared about me, why would they give a shit about my writing?

So here’s my advice for you, dear writers: write that story, don’t censor yourself.

Release your demons so you can free up space for your artistic self to grow.