I used to be the king of shut-up-until-you-can-understand-all-input, but then I listened to this Japanese With Noriko episode and realized she made some great points. (Plus, the leading proponent of no-output-until-you’re-good is someone I can’t stand who I suspect relies on pseudoscience and exaggerates his proficiency.)
I eventually bit the bullet and started writing on LangCorrect. I still don’t write much, but I feel huge gains from doing it. Outputting seems to strengthen the “encoding” of the words in my brain. I don’t feel like I’m scanning my brain as I read each word.
Really, no matter what, learning any language means getting laughed at a lot. A lot. I still get flashbacks to the time I referred to a group of Japanese girls I’d just met as 「あんたたち」. I shit you not: those three girls pointed and laughed every time they saw me for the next ten weeks. No matter when you start speaking, you have to get past that period of sounding ridiculous.