thedustdancestoo

Writing is sometimes daunting. Writing is always daunting. To write: pry yourself open, climb inside your head, sit down in the darkness for hours, and talk to yourself.  This is pretty much what we do as writers everyday. There is no way of escaping it. And as we sit there, alone in the dark, we invite all of our insecurities, fears, hopes, joys, missed opportunities, thoughts, scars, dreams, and nightmares over for tea and biscuits, and are forced to say hello and make small talk. Over and over and over. No wonder we are a strange bunch (I mean this in the best way possible of course). 

Writing is a vulnerable and intimate thing. What we put on the page is us. Pieces of us-- in the form of poetry and drama, misspelled words and ink and run on sentences. I think being vulnerable is terrifying for any human being, let alone a writer (who’s entire profession is about vulnerability). Vulnerability opens us up to pain and disappointment and so much insecurity.  I think maybe this insecurity is what drives us to turn against each other, put up a wall, and retreat into ourselves. Which comes to my point.  We are in this together. 

This is not a battle against each other. Fellow writers are not the enemy or even, the competition; there are enough stories and books and readers to go around. Actually, the more diverse stories written into the world will make us all better, as writers and people.

It’s not you vs me. Me vs you. You vs them. In reality, it is just us. 

We desperately need each other.

So be gracious and supportive to each other. Be there, encourage your fellow writers to dream, create, and share their story. You have your own, and so do they. They are each different and unique and worthy to be told. 

Writing is already difficult enough. Life is already difficult enough. There is terrible darkness and loneliness in both, so don’t add to them. You are not alone. We are not alone. This journey is one we make together. So light your fires. Love. Pick each other up when we fall. Speak hope and truth. Comfort each other in failure and discouragement, and in success, scream and dance and shout from the rooftops. 

I think, if we do this, we will be better, happier storytellers (and people), and the darkness will not seem so dark, the loneliness, not so lonely. Stories are, in their essence, collections and retellings of human experience. We tell stories and we are stories. Keep writing, keep sharing your voice, keep being vulnerable, and whatever you do, keep celebrating each other. The act of writing (and living) will always be daunting. It will be painful and difficult sometimes. But it is worth it.  

And it will be much better if we face it together.