by Suzanne Lieurance
Most writers have one. The piece that almost stayed hidden. The essay that felt too raw to publish, that you revised seventeen times not because it needed more revision but because revision kept it safely in progress. The story you submitted once, got a rejection, and nearly retired to a drawer. The piece you wrote in a white heat and then sat on for six months because it said something true and true things are exposed in ways that polished things aren’t.
Then This Happened
And then — for whatever reason — you shared it anyway. Maybe you forced yourself. Maybe a deadline made the decision for you. Maybe someone whose judgment you trusted read it and said: this needs to be out in the world.
What happened next is the part worth paying attention to.
This is Almost Always True
Almost always, the piece that almost didn’t get shared is the one that matters most to readers. Not always the most technically accomplished. Not always the most carefully constructed. But the most alive — because it carries the particular energy of something written without the armor that self-consciousness puts up.
Readers feel that. They may not be able to name what they’re responding to, but they know when they’re in the presence of something real. And the pieces that feel most real to write are almost always the ones that felt most dangerous to share.
Think About This
Think about the pieces you’ve almost not shared — and the ones you still haven’t.
Is there something in that folder right now that has been waiting longer than it should?
Not because it isn’t ready, but because you aren’t?
The discomfort you feel about a piece is not a reliable indicator of its quality.
Sometimes it’s the opposite: a signal that you’ve written something worth the risk.
The piece you almost don’t share is often the one someone needed most.
That reader is out there.
They just can’t find it yet.
And now, go back and take a look at this month’s theme and challenge: Visibility as a Writer.
This month’s issue of Manifesting Monthly magazine goes deep on what it means to let yourself be seen as a writer — including the pieces that feel hardest to release. Subscribe here now and take the deeper work with you into July.
Suzanne Lieurance is the author of over 40 published books and a transformational Law of Attraction coach for writers who are ready to stop waiting to feel like the real thing. At Write by the Sea, she guides writers through the identity shift that changes everything — not just the writing, but the whole life built around it. She is the publisher of Manifesting Monthly magazine and the host of Monday Morning Manifestors.
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