The other day I read that in order to write you need to have a clear mind, and that that's why writing is so difficult.
If I'm honest, I think it's completely flawed thinking. Not only that, but I think it's the kind of thinking that ruins so many artists and limits so much potential. It's the kind of thinking that sows insecurities and causes future trauma. It's the kind of thinking someone would have who wants to run before learning to walk.
If I've learned anything over the years, it's that writing is a process that leads to mental clarity. Writing isn't the result of a clear mind. If I waited until I had a clear mind to give myself the opportunity to write, I'd never write a single page. However, when I write simply because I need to convey my thoughts, I always find that my ideas make much more sense in the end, and my mind, therefore, sees things more clearly.
The reason I think this kind of thinking is so destructive is because it often stems from our perfectionist instinct. We're waiting for the perfect moment, the moment when our minds are clear, to sit down and dare to translate our thoughts into words. That moment, I'm afraid to disappoint you, will never come.
I find it hard to imagine that Dostoevsky, or any of the other great philosophical writers, had a 100 percent clear mind every time they sat down to write. I'm not saying you can't have a clear mind, nor that we'll always have a mess of a mind, but ultimately I want to warn you that locking yourself in a box won't help at all. Writing is about discovery. What are you going to discover? I don't know, and I suppose you don't either. But you won't know if you don't write, and especially if you wait for "the perfect moment" to do it. It won't come. I can assure you of that.
Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong; that's part of not locking yourself in a box. Don't believe everything I tell you; question my ideas and my words if you feel it's necessary to discover the writer within you. And I think the vast majority will agree with me that, at the end of the day, the point is to discover how your writer's mind works.
So write.
With a clear mind or a complete, senseless mess.
At first, everything will be a mess. There will be meaningless phrases here, others that make no sense, others that have color but no soul. Prepare for disaster, because there will be disaster. The thing is, in a way, it will always be this way. My mom and I have a saying we like to say every time we're cleaning the house and everything seems to be going from bad to worse:
It always looks worse before it looks better.
I think that also applies to writing, whatever you're writing.
Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm not. Maybe writing is difficult not because we don't have a clear mind, but because we don't give it the chance to find the solution. I guess we won't know until we try the experiment. Will you dare? It's a challenge. I want to encourage you, the next time your mind is a mess, to pick up a pen or whatever you write with, take a blank sheet of paper, and write. Without expecting wonders from yourself, without expecting perfection. Give yourself that chance. The chance to be free. The chance to discover what writing hides for you in every sense. Yes, you can; you just have to dare.
Behind the letters, a girl ๐น
P.S. In case you're interested, I started a new newsletter called The Random Section. I think the name says a lot about what I'll be writing about there, but just in case, I'll be writing about all sorts of random stuff. From educational philosophies to random, meaningless thoughts. Sounds interesting or fun to you? Subscribe so you don't miss a thing!
Random Tip: I don't know what I was thinking when I started this random tip thing, I probably wasn't. My advice today? Don't follow my example and don't create a random tip section in your newsletter.
heyyyy i nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger Award! https://open.substack.com/pub/reformedtheology/p/nomination-for-the-sunshine-blogger?r=4tk8xf&utm_medium=ios im supposed to go to each of my nominees and tell em so they can keep up the chain of encouragement!
Writing is HOW I clear my mind. I can't make sense of my thoughts until I see them on paper.