Writing as a lifelong passion and the journey toward fully embracing it

Recently, I wrote this letter to my inner writer-self. I’m sharing it with you today in case you might need to hear some of this wisdom too.

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Dear Inner writer - I know you worry. You think it's been far too many years since that moment of insight when you knew with certainty you wanted to be a writer.

In truth, though, that was not the first time you knew you wanted to write.

Perhaps, the first time happened when you sat with your little sister up in your bedroom, spending sticky July afternoons sitting on the linoleum floor with loose leaf paper strewn about and writing ghost stories. The stories came through fast, and you held your pencil steady because you were ‘publishing’ them, stapling them with brightly colored construction paper covers.

The minutes ticked to hours, and the days slid away as the stories came and you delighted reading them aloud to each other.

This wasn’t the kind of writing you learned at school.

What you learned at school was how to be a good student, divining and following the rules for assignments. You took a creative writing class in high school, and you loved it. But as the weeks and years wore on, it became clear that your next assignment was to do well at life itself.

So, you went to college to study. Writing was still there but it stayed mostly tucked away in composition notebooks, catching tears on the hard days.

It was later when you went to live overseas that you gradually began filling up thin notebooks with observations and story scraps. And one day, you were visited with a stunning sense of clarity: you wanted to be a writer.

You’ve now spent the many years since that moment trying to remember that truth. Only to forget it, and then remember it again.

Over and over again.

This is part of who you are.

Part of you is stunned, and sad, that it's taken this long for you to make this “being a writer” more real. Yes, you’ve written some things. You’ve had a few things published. You’ve spent moments hoping and believing in your writing.

And yet, that desire to write has often felt just out of your reach. A thirst you couldn’t seem to quench. Even when you quit your full-time marketing job a few years ago, it seemed you had to build your business first. Before “being a writer.”

But here you are.

Here you are.

So of course, you sometimes wonder: Is it too late? I've let so many moments go.

In answer, I’d tell you the same thing I said to a client just this morning, which was: "Beloved, you can only ever take the next step when you're ready." And, by being ready, I didn't mean ready to “just do it” or to “feel the fear and do it anyway. “

I also didn’t mean ready with “all the answers” or to “know what will happen next.”

What I meant, and mean, when I say when you’re ready, is that you’re able to step into the not-knowing. You can walk fully into the uncertainty—to fling your heart toward the one true thing you've always known you’ve wanted.

And to do that fully knowing it might not ‘work.’ Not knowing if or when or how people will find your words. When or if they'll be moved by your poems or stories—or not.

In the end, ready also means being ready to not care so much about any of that. Mostly because the act of writing and telling and expressing has finally become so vital, it’s like breath itself.

So, if a part of you wonders if it's too late, I'd ask only that you consider this: Is it ever too late to turn to something (or someone) that you love? Is it ever really too late to run right up and whisper, yes, yes! I'm here. I’m ready.

What are you ready to write today?

Photo by alvin matthews on Unsplash

If you're looking for ways to help you turn back to your writing, try my 33 Creative Writing Doorways. Each day, for 33 days, you'll receive a new writing prompt designed to spark your imagination and help you say ‘yes’ to your writing. Click the link to start today.