I've said this on FB. I think this is an important discussion because so many people feel they need permission, and it's not as though there is 'writing space' which can be absorbed by too many people wanting it, like a pub running out of beer. Publishing is a different story: there are gatekeeping issues, but a lot of the issues in publishing are the issues of global capitalism, and good luck with any of us really coming to terms with those.

However, it has literally never occurred to me that I would need someone's permission to do anything, other than when a child, out of politeness ('do you mind if I take the afternoon off on Friday as I have a dental appointment?') or expediency (this usually relates to national laws, like not driving the wrong way down a one way street). At my first day in infant school a little girl next to me took it upon herself to tell me what I could and couldn't do, and I asked to be moved and was.

I now move myself, and will tell the officious person - however justified they may think they may be - to shove their comments where the sun don't shine. This makes me unpopular but in the main gives me a life unencumbered by the self righteous.

One doesn't need permission to do anything (except in the instances above). One is an adult in a relatively free society.