Admittedly there are some places I refuse to go, probably to the detriment of my writing career. I don't think I could write about a missing or kidnapped child or child abuse or violence to animals. I couldn't handle examining the intense feelings that would be stirred up in the process. I know it would make for some pretty powerful writing, but I'm just not ready for it yet. What delicious fun to imagine yourself in the place of your heroine.
Writing does have some payoffs after all.
It's a bit like the feeling I got writing in my diary as a teenager, never quite convinced that my mother or father or sister wouldn't find it, and what I had written, in secret, would be exposed to all. It isn't easy, but determine you won't hide from your emotions, your embarrassments, your anxieties. They can help you produce some pretty powerful fiction. And who cares what people think of you after reading what you have written. You can always use a penname.