Sharing your work means some people won’t like it. Not sharing means nobody gets the chance to.

Putting something out means it can be judged, and some of that judgement will be careless or unfair. Keeping it in avoids all of it and also closes the only route to what you actually want, which is somebody seeing the work and caring about it. The quiet option feels safe because its cost arrives as nothing happening, and nothing happening never looks like a loss.

Take one finished piece and show it to three people this week, including somebody outside your circle. Ask what they noticed rather than whether they liked it. Treat the first unkind response as the entry fee, because that is what it is.