Just Like You

Sometimes when I teach Fearless Writing, I feel like I spend most of my time saying, “Don’t think this. Also, don’t think this thing either – or this other thing. You can’t think any of that and write.” It’s true. There are so many thoughts that wander into our heads that are absolutely incompatible with writing. You can either think them or write; not both.

For instance, you can’t think about anything that’s not your story. You can’t think about your kid’s homework, or the guy you need to call about the sink, or House Select committee hearings, or the thing your wife said last week. You’re not writing about it, so you can’t think about it. It doesn’t mean none of it matters, or that you’ll never think about it, you just can’t think about it now. You have to forget about all of it even if they seem like problems, even if they seem very important. Right now, there’s no one and nothing to take care of.

That’s the easy stuff not to think about. It’s trickier to not think about whether people will like your story, or if there’s a market for it, of if someone else would tell it better. On and on. You know these thoughts. You likely have a few of your favorites. They seem practical, intended to save you from wasting your time or embarrassing yourself by writing something boring or obvious. There’s nothing practical about any of this kind of mental hand-wringing. No one has ever written anything while also wondering if they have what it takes or what their parents will think of their story. It’s impossible.

Inevitably, as you let go of your unfinished chores and worries about the world, and you let yourself stop wondering if you’re a good enough writer, you will, hopefully, find yourself in an unusual place. For a moment, there will be nothing. Nothing that needs doing and nothing that has your attention. And yet, there you are, complete and present and alive even though you’re not doing anything, thinking anything, going anywhere. If you sink into this stillness, you’ll see that you were never what you were doing, never even what you were writing. You were just you, always. This is the perfect starting place for a new story, for it won’t have to prove anything or solve anything, you’ll let it be whatever it wants to be – just like you.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com