Writing stuff, thoughts after reading essay by Dani Shapiro

In the July 17, 2011 copy of the "New York Times Book Review" Dani Shapiro has an essay on page 27 titled "The Me My Child Mustn't Know". I read this yesterday and I think a lot of us can relate to it. I have written stuff that could be hurtful to people. I have written stuff that I don't want my daughter to see, at least not until I'm dead and she's old. I think being a parent does alter our thinking about our writing, at least if we want to be published. I can certainly understand Ms. Shapiro's point of view. The odds of me being published are pretty slim. The odds of my daughter reading my stuff when she is 15 or 16 years old... I don't know. I remember being a teen and digging through my mother's room and reading some of her stuff. I had questions. My mother got angry but she answered them. I still have questions but I know better than to ask them now. So yes having a child alters our art of writing, or at least what we do with it. I don't know if I'll ever get published. The fear of hurting my friends, family, former lovers, etc. is one thing that holds me back. I think if I do publish I will have to publish fiction so that I don't hurt anyone. Still, it's a tough thing to sort out.


You can read more here:

http://brevity.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/what-the-memoirist-prefers-her-child-does-not-know/

This is the book that Ms. Shapiro didn't want her son to know about. I admit I haven't read any of her works.: