No Matter How Small

“Who?” – “You.”

“You, who?” – “You, you.”

“Me?” – “Yes, you.”

“Seriously?” – “Seriously.”

“But why?” – “Why not?”

“I’m too young.” – “Doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t have anything to say.” – “I know this isn’t true.”

“I’m not a good writer.” – “No one is a good writer at first.”

“My grammar is bad.” – “Eh, grammar is overrated. Besides, most of the things that people refer to as grammatical ‘errors’ are actually stylistic choices that don’t conform to the expectations of standard writing. With practice, everyone figures out how to make their stylistic choices meet the reader’s expectations. See comment above: ‘no one is a good writer at first.’

“But who wants to read my ideas?.” – “You never know who needs to hear exactly what you’re thinking: who shares your fears, your dreams, your plans, your experiences. It’s true: if you write down your ideas, maybe only one person will read them. But maybe that was one person who really needed to encounter you and your ideas at this particular time and place in the cosmos.”

To all writers who needed to hear this today: take courage and remember that your ideas are valuable and lovely and deserve to be heard. You never know when your ideas will shed a bit of light on someone else’s darkness. Keep writing. No matter how much darkness your own self-doubt may cast, in this, the darkest season of the year, keep bringing points of light – no matter how small – into corners of the word, no matter how small.

If you orbit in a traditional academic world and have a bit of “down time” between semesters, take advantage of the time to scribble and doodle and be creative, writing what you want to write. Take a deep breath and a creative break before jumping back into the work of next semester’s writing.

I’ll be back in two weeks (January 1st) with tips on framing – an appropriate topic as we set a course for the new year!

In the meantime, happy reading, happy writing, happy (hopefully) relaxing,

Dr. Lori