The raw uncomfortable truth shall set you free.
Writing is fundamentally an exercise in bleeding out your fears, struggles, and personality onto paper.
You might think you’re writing for money, for fame, as a hobby, or whatever other made-up reason. But you’re wrong. You’re writing because life is too much for you and you’re squeezing it out like a humongous pimple that’s trying to choke your breathing.
I started writing at a very painful time in my life.
I had just lost a job, had covid, had 0 income, and was severely depressed.
I did it because I had nothing better to do. Actually, because I had nothing to do. Not better or worse. Nothing. Zero. A void.
So I wrote. And in 2 weeks I was healed.
There is something hypnotic and magic about the touch between your fingertips and the keyboard, don’t you think? It puts you in a trance where you can write for hours. Just let the words pour out of your hands.
That trance is called flow and people all over the world are struggling to access it as often as possible. Struggle, however, is counterintuitive to flow. Just as it is counterintuitive to writing itself.
Force it and it won’t come out. Let it bleed and it will bleed for hours.
There is one main reason why everybody should write, whether they are good at it or not.
Everybody should write because writing is therapy. The good kind, not the wishy-washy blow smoke up your ass type.
It’s therapy in the rawest of forms. You sit down with your laptop and hit it with your words. You pour out everything in your head. But guess what? As you do that, it hits you back. Sometimes it hits you back with love. It makes you realize all your dreams, your hopes, your desires, they were all bs.
You’d think that’s a bad thing. But that’s a form of love few of us can access.
The knowledge that your life so far has been nonsense is also a chance to start it all again and make it better. Or worse. But it’s an incredible chance at making it the way you want it to be.
To make it real, make it yours.
Sometimes, writing hits you back with uncertainty and loss. With deeper parts of yourself that have been hiding in the depths of you, begging to be discovered. Give yourself a chance to get out of the cage of your mind and run around free.
Even if it looks like the crazies, do it for yourself.
You’re all you have.
And it’s your chance to show yourself to the world as you are: a broken mess that they can love or hate. A mess that you liberated from the confines of playing cute and jumping through hoops for everybody else’s entertainment.
For those of us who come from dysfunctional families or toxic relationships, there’s a huge chance that nobody ever heard you.
How many times did anybody look at you and saw you for who you really are? Careful, I said who you really are, not who you want others to think you are.
I bet most times their empty eyes looked right through you. I bet they offered sympathy without really knowing what happened. They don’t see you, they don’t hear you, they can’t. They don’t even see themselves.
That’s the drama. They don’t see you because they don’t have the ability to do it.
So stop asking them to.
It’s like asking a child to drive a car. They don’t have that ability!
So show yourself somewhere else. Hit finger to keyboard or pen to paper and let them love you or hate you.
Only then are you truly yourself, when you get both love and hate.
You only show the good side of yourself. Just like your toxic family taught you: to lie and be nice so you don’t bother anyone.
Is that a role that you still want to play? Do it if you must, just be aware there is another way. Now you have the chance you’ve always been waiting for. To be you.
To put yourself out there.
To run with the wolves.
Every story I create creates me, I write to create myself. (Octavia E. Butler)
Do you want to create Your Self? If the answer is yes, start writing (you can join me on Substack for more juicy writing tips and tricks)!
- Writing is therapy in its purest form.
- It’s a foolproof way to find out who you are.
- It’s your chance to finally be heard.
So what’s your pick? Are you going to run wild and free? Will you explore every little part of you and let writing cure you of all the pain and hurt?
Now you can. And it’s not about writing for the public, earning from your words, or having a big audience.
It’s about reaching inside you. Grabbing your bleeding raw emotion and dragging it out on the table for everyone to see.
Do it! Live!
🎈 Successful author, wealthy word whisperer, unapologetic writer? If these words don’t describe you yet, come join The Word Whisperers Substack. 🎈