Many authors often feel or fear this, but the truth is we write anyway because NOT doing so is simply not an option for us. We can try to ignore or box our writing away for a time – possibly years – but eventually, just as the seed of a tree knows it must push through the soil to grow into what it’s meant to be, so do we.
I started this notebook at the beginning of this year and I’ve barely skipped writing a day so far. Most of what I’d been writing previously was typed into whatever device I had handy, and whilst it can be incredibly convenient, it’s just not the same. And whilst I previously held onto a sense of having to post much of what I wrote, I let go of that idea. I chose to simply focus again on the joy of writing without any internal or external pressures. Because when we force things, they usually don’t turn out the way we’d like.
If the essence of being a writer is to write, then we need to do just that. Everything beyond that is a bonus – posting, publishing books, sales, audience, praise… these are lovely, but none of them can exist without the first step.
Writers write.
We write to understand, and perhaps be understood.
We write to soothe.
We write to reclaim or proclaim.
We write to process.
We write to learn.
We write to share.
We write to laugh.
We write to love.
We write to release tension.
We write to deactivate frustration.
We write for joy.
We write for sorrow.
We write to grieve.
We write to celebrate.
We write because often it’s the best way we can express ourselves.
We write so we don’t need to scream out loud.
We write for tenderness.
We write without always knowing who will read us, yet we write anyway.
Writing is a pathway to reading ourselves; our emotions, our beliefs, to get a grasp of our place in this world. What we choose to share we do so without fully knowing how it will be received, yet we do it anyway.
If you’ve read this, thank you. If it’s inspired you to pick up a pen and write to get in touch with yourself, praise be to you. If it made you think about your own life, whether you write or not, I hope it’s ignited something good.
