Urgent Danger

Writing is always risky business. Not only does it lead you outside of your comfort zone, make you rethink your boundaries and test your limits, but it can also expose to you things you didn’t know about yourself before. That may either scare the bejesus out of you or, in the case of the ready ones, allow you to stare boldly at yourself in all your light and dark and even that secret you never thought you’d tell anyone. Ever. Once you start writing, who knows what you’ll unearth. I think everyone writes for different reasons: some write to escape, to relive, to discover, to record, and others because they’ll go stark raving mad if they don’t. I’m confident that writers are some of the most courageous people you’ll ever meet. The desire to create meaningful work, the need to convey authenticity, becomes significantly more important than catering to your inhibitions. Truth-telling, be it through fiction, non-fiction, essays or poetry, becomes paramount. Anyone can learn something from an honest voice. Writing is important because it serves as a time capsule by which one can document their history, communicate sincerely, and evoke change. In accomplishing these things, even by writing your first sentence, you come a little bit closer to understanding yourself on fuller terms. Whatever propels you to write, whichever questions you are trying to answer, write to know. Sometimes through writing things become a little clearer. Write.