Once as a baby writer I told a CP about where I was going with a story and they said

"No, you can't write that, it's way too dark."

I felt shame. Dumb, maybe, but it's true. I decided to write it anyway, but consciously or otherwise I spent years trying to write to please CP's, imaginary audiences, imaginary agents

My writing got way better when I started getting deliberate about quitting that.