Write What Haunts You
And nothing else
Hey, Part-Time Creator, how's your week been?
This week we’re talking about the writing that is really worth writing, the writing that keeps you up at night—the stuff that you, yes you, should be telling the world.
Read time: 2.3 minutes
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How do you write about your life? How do you build an audience and find like-minded people to ponder with? Well, you have to have something to say.
The problem is, most people don’t know what to write about — or talk about. They have this ambition to do the thing but don’t know where to start.
It’s this nail-biting, head-banging frustration that starts to take over your life. You thought that you needed more time, what you really need though, is something worth talking about.
But the problem with this way of thinking is that it never happens because you’re looking for something profound to say rather than something that just resonates with people.
Step 1: Look at your emotions
Life is a cocktail of misery and emotion. It’s spilling over with problems, complexities, relationships to manage, and people to keep happy. It’s overwhelming and exhausting. It’s a pressure cooker of thoughts. Think too hard and you might just explode.
I’m somebody who used to be haunted by my ideas. I’d replay situations, conversations, interactions. I’d worry about what people thought of me, how they talked about me to their friends — I worried about what that meant for me. It used to spiral in my mind. Over and over. I couldn’t quite catch what I was thinking about because it was all happening so fast.
So in 2020, I started writing things down. Initially just to understand them. Somehow, having the thought in black and white made it more tangible, more real so I could hold onto it better. It meant I could slow down time to unpick what I was actually thinking.
Then I got into the habit of writing about my thoughts and emotions. If I was anxious or concerned, I’d write down the situation that made me feel that way and then write out how I felt.
What started as a simple habit became a sort of therapy. There’s something powerful about bringing thoughts to life and facing them head-on. To write into your emotions, to relive your experiences to double-check whether or not how you’re feeling is true or just a figment of your imagination.
The more I started to write, the more I saw patterns in my own behavior and emotions. The more I started to understand myself.
Step 2: Sit with your mind and explore it
In a world full of noise and social signaling, it’s easy for your mind to be hijacked and you be fooled into thinking it’s yours. It’s easy to form opinions because of other people’s influence.
It’s easy to be influenced without even knowing.
It’s a scary reality. How do you know if these thoughts are yours or if they are built on somebody else’s? If all you do is consume the opinions of everyone, how can you tell where your mind starts and their mind ends?
Documenting your experiences and emotions without consulting the world leads you to your own truth. To make up your mind as you understand it, to write through without the pollution of other opinion. By writing as you think, you understand what you truly believe.
But you have to be willing to sit with it.
It’s easy to write when you’re happy, when an experience has lit you up when you feel moved and full. It’s much harder though, to feel vulnerable, to be scared, to face fear, to ask questions of your sadness. It’s much harder to sit in your mind as you don’t quite understand the thoughts you’re having. It’s much scarier to face the fact that you might not know yourself today.
Teach yourself to be honest. To dig deep. To find the answers. Don’t stop at the surface, if you’re feeling sad or upset, ask why, understand the cause, dig.
Step 3: Accept you might not know the answer
Life isn’t this clean, well-put-together jigsaw.
The movies fool you into thinking it might be. Other people’s stories confirm the idea that it could be. But behind closed doors, behind the shiny headlines and the perfect Instagram reels, there is a messy, cluttered and uncertain life full of questions and not a tonne of answers.
Writing honestly requires mental resilience. You might not always get to the answer. You might not know how you’re feeling. You might need more time. You might need to try again tomorrow.
The more honest you are with where you are and how you actually feel, the more truth you seek.
Step 4: The best way to write
Is to fall in love with life. For all it’s messiness. For all its uncertainty. For all it’s noise and chaos. To fall in love with the life you have and the emotions you feel.
To not resist or ask to feel something else. But to face right into it, whatever it is. Be it grief, love, trauma, or fear. To feel it. To exist in it. To fall in love with the waves of emotions.
What about you…are you thinking about writing on the internet? What’s holding you back?
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Much love,
Eve :)
Thank you. I feel so opened up and exposed. You have identified the clutter in my mind and in my room. I have a desire to write each day but I listen to my head, and it always says I'm not ready! I am going to beat my mind and practice being an over comer! I like the title cause it can become a haunting experience.
"If all you do is consume the opinions of everyone, how can you tell where your mind starts and their mind ends?"
This line hit home for me Eve. I love writing, but spend a lot of time reading other peoples work, especially on Medium. Hoping for "Devine intervention" I guess. The answer is to write, period. Thanks for an enjoyable read. All the Best.