You are a writer, an artist, a creator. You want your work to inspire. You want to know someone is affected by it. You’re happy to keep a creation to yourself when convinced no one will share your admiration.

I say write it anyway. Tell the story. Ship it.

At worst, no one reads it, you find out more about yourself, and you log a few more miles of writing publicly. The best case scenario is that one other person feels exactly the same way and is happy you spoke up.

Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

Writing is an art form. Creators don’t get to choose how an observer will appreciate their work. It may not be elegant words, sentence structure, and superior transitions that moves a reader. Maybe the work’s appeal is in the author’s candor and passion.

When you want to tell a story, the most important element is YOU.

We live in a time where authenticity is like a diamond among broken glass. We constantly look for the real, unfiltered, untamed versions of each other. We want to see the truth. Likewise, we want to feel the connection a creator has to their work.

As a writer, your truth is expressed by your style, your words, your emotions. Embrace them. Own them.

Exit Perfection

I have what’s becoming a graveyard of drafts on my young Blog and an overworked iPhone. I tell myself that I haven’t had time to finish. More accurately, the pieces go unpublished, because I want them to be perfect — impactful, timely, and relevant.

The more I write publicly, the more pressure I put on myself to publish perfect essays. It’s a distraction. It robs me of creative flow. It conflicts with the cathartic reason I began writing publicly.

Be Encouraged

I want to remind you to regularly consider why you write. Scribble it on a mirror. Tape it across a computer monitor. Make it a text tone in a chipmunk voice. Inscribe it on some Chucks. Whatever it takes, remember the reasons this is important to you.

The decision to express out loud your feelings about a subject is enough of a reason to write.

So, write it anyway.