I have always believed that anyone can write. Life throws at us many opportunities to express ourselves in words — something short or long, in public or in private. It is incumbent on us to grab the chance.
Colin Walker had expressed a similar sentiment while summarising his lessons from his Write365 challenge.
What does matter is that we communicate, that we share, that we express ourselves so that others can understand. What does matter is that we don’t isolate ourselves behind a wall of silence.
Writing is a starting point, a first step on a much longer path.
We should all write.
I completely agree with Colin, each one of us should write. This also reminds me of a post I had written arguing everyone can write — all it takes is a will and belief in oneself. Following is an excerpt from that post.
One way to think of writing is to jot down abundance of words, leading towards a story or an account. Another way is to simply think of it as expressing oneself. Every person often comes across such occasions to put his thought, his ideas, his expressions in words. Occasions are aplenty. Event in his own life. Event in the lives of acquaintances, friends or near & dear ones. Or just a public event.
One of my friends had a similar occasion, one close to his heart. It was anniversary of his engagement with his fiancé, theirs 1st. He took all the pains to decide on the gift, the place to buy it from, flowers to go with it and the time to be delivered at. And then he did what I see people doing most often. He went to google and typed “1st anniversary wishes/messages”. I wondered why did he not just scribble what he felt?
It’s saddening to see people resist the efforts to pen the words they think of. They go after what others have written, beautifully never-the-less, but at the cost of it being not real, fake. They underestimate the power of conveying one’s own feelings in whichever way possible. The words, their structure won’t matter much then. And that is one way one can start writing.
Don’t miss a chance to write to your loved ones, breed a will to do so. Wish them, appreciate them, console them. Keep it simple, write the words you feel. Take effort to make it personal, involving.
And finally, have belief in yourself.
And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
-Sylvia Plath
So next time you get an occasion to wish someone, don’t doubt yourself. Start writing. Express.