I've worked in creative industries for nearly all of my career and so I thought I knew all about the self-doubt and self-questioning that shadow the creative process. While the latter may provide valuable clues and stimulus that can lead to better ideas, the former is just something that must be accepted, fought through or ignored. I thought I knew about it, but I didn't really. Not until I started writing. Doubt infuses every part of the process, starting with; 'what makes you think you have anything worth saying and what makes you think you can say it in such a way that anyone would want to read it?'.

No-one is obligated to read anything I write, so I can tell myself that it doesn't matter too much if no-one else reads it as long as I like what I've written and I'm writing stuff that I want to read. But do I even have to right to stand up and say 'this is what I think'? I tell myself I do because everyone has that right. What we don't have a right to do is ram our opinions down other people's throats or try to force them to agree with us or even like our words.

But what is creative writing? (Apart from the weirdest form of self-torture mankind has ever devised.) Isn't it, in the mind of the volunteer reader, entertainment?

Do we have a right to entertain? Now that's an odd question.