A good friend of mine who recently passed away loved to write fanfic. She was too scared of criticism for years to publish anything she wrote - despite writing being her day job - and when she finally did, she realized that she had a real talent for fic writing.

I write things I personally like to read. Occasionally I write something I think someone else might want to read as well.

Until now, I was too scared to publish anything for the potential criticism of strangers.

Thank you, Branni. I miss you.

Update for 05/18/2019:

I haven't posted here for years. Last year the doctors finally figured out what was destroying my eyes and joints - a rare genetic disorder called "Stickler's Syndrome." In the past year, I've lost a great deal of mobility to the disease.