You Are More Interesting Than You Think
You think too much about what you should write about, and not enough about what you would want to write about.
We desperately want our writing to be as profound as possible, to change the entire way the world is perceived, to be something no one has ever read before. We set unrealistic expectations for ourselves, expecting every piece of our work to reveal some great truth about life, which is why, even when we want to write more, we sit there thinking about what to say to impress people.
All the ideas that come to mind seem too common and unimportant to you. What happens in your life looks drab and is nothing worth sharing. You compare yourself to others; every story you read raises the bar for what you expect to achieve. You can no longer talk about your life (because it is not exciting, about yourself (because you are not interesting enough), or about your conversations (because they are about mundane things).
Before we create anything, we already want to know that it is unique; however, we often do not even understand what we intend to share until we begin speaking. So, we look for inspiration, research the entire internet, compare ideas, and see what others are writing about, and, unfortunately, in this way, we end up losing the most important element: the author.
I used to be the same way. I would carefully select topics to make sure they were truly relevant, which really limited my writing. I did not post as many entries, not because I lacked ideas, but simply because I did not feel they were meaningful.
Now, as you can see, I publish something new every week because I have freed all the thoughts from my head. Of course, I care about the quality of my entries and how well they are put together. I want them to be as good as possible, but I no longer sit in front of my laptop for 40 minutes wondering what to write about. That kills my creativity. I feel like each topic has to outdo the last for me to work on it.
In my opinion, that contradicts the whole point of writing. You write because you want to share something with the world, so why keep it locked up in your head? Sometimes the best things come about exactly the opposite way: you begin with what seems like anything ordinary, write 500 words, and later discover that there is something more.
We do not have to interpret our experiences and craft beautiful sentences from them immediately. Just showing what things look like from our perspective can be incredibly valuable.
You do not have to rush to Pinterest right away to look for inspiration, because the inspiration is already within you.
All you have to do is sit down and ask yourself: What has been on my mind since yesterday> What surprised me, delighted me, or annoyed me? Maybe it was something in a documentary, maybe an observation in your own city, maybe something in your relationship or in your own behavior.
There is definitely something stuck with you, and you feel ready to speak about it. So why wait? Maybe it is because you feel you have to earn the right to publish and give a good enough reason, or because you are afraid someone has already said it and it is not sufficiently original. But if you feel you have something to add, write about it. You are writing from a different place than everyone else, and that is what makes it valuable.
Maybe it is because you do not want to write about yourself. It is too revealing, and large topics are generally universal in their statements and do not necessarily apply to us. It is easier to describe how we are living in uncertain times than to admit that, at (enter age here), you do not know what to do with your life because nothing interests you. Maybe it does not look pretty or impressive, but it is raw, human, and uniquely yours.
Maybe it is because you want to be relatable, and I am not surprised at all. I am always pleased when others identify with what I write, but I often know myself that this leads to smoothing out our experiences so they match the larger narrative.
As a result, when we cannot draw a universal lesson from something, we feel like we are out of ideas.
But you have plenty of them, you just keep ignoring them. You read Patti Smith and are impressed by her approach to life; write about it. You went to a theatre performance and noticed that people were behaving in a certain way; write about it. You took your first trip abroad; write about it. Write about your recommendations for the best restaurants in Chicago. Write about what you did not reply to for a month to a message you had been so eagerly awaiting. Write about why you suddenly stopped feeling comfortable in your apartment. Write about the moment you realized you did not like someone you really wanted to like.
You have this image in your head of “the person who writes good essays,” and you are trying to fit into that role. Meanwhile, your life is one big source of inspiration, you just find it too small to recognize. Because of this, you try to write about the “big” things others write about, forgetting that you have access to knowledge and experiences others do not, and you do not even try to use them.
Take a look at the works you have hidden away in your drafts and ask yourself if you could not give them a second chance and finish them with a fresh approach.
With love,
Kierstyn
Comments