What is a fear you’ve overcome — and how did you do it?
I have often been afraid that I do not have much to offer. I sit down to write and wonder whether the thought is too ordinary. Someone else has probably said it better. Someone else has probably said it with more learning, more wit, more edge.
For a long time, I thought useful writing had to be original. Or brilliant. Or at least impressive. That was the misunderstanding.
It meant I kept waiting until I had something worth saying. But somewhere along the way I began to realise that most people are not looking for impressive. They are looking for true. That changed something for me.
At some point, I came across Hemingway’s advice: “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” That helped.
It did not make writing easy. It did not remove the doubt. Some mornings the doubt is still there staring me in the face, but I turn off the internal critic and start writing anyway. It lowers the stakes enough for me to begin. I do not have to write the perfect sentence. I do not have to solve anything. I do not have to sound wiser than I am. I just have to write the truest sentence that comes to mind. Then, usually, another one follows.
That has become a small discipline for me. Sometimes it becomes something useful. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes what emerges is only useful to me, but the clarity is invaluable.
Maybe the fear of having nothing to offer is overcome by offering something small anyway. Not something impressive. Not something polished. Just something true.
The Afterword 
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