Do you have days when it feels like writing is pointless or self-indulgent?
Maybe you feel like you should be doing something "more important".
Maybe you see your writing as "just a hobby" (even if you're secretly hoping it might one day be much more than that for you).
But here's the truth:
Your writing matters.
You matter. And you deserve to do something that you find fulfilling. Something that makes you happy.
Even if your writing is simply an enjoyable hobby, it's still worth spending time on.
But your writing might well be far more than that.
If nothing else, writing might well help you to be a better person: it gives you the time to be alone and to think, and the space to be truly you. I know I'm a better mum when I have time to write!
Your writing can
help many more people than just you, though.
You never know what effect your words may have. I can't tell you how much it means to me when readers email me about a blog post or newsletter to say "that was just what I needed to read today". It's a wonderful moment of connection -- of knowing that someone else's day was made just that bit better because of something I wrote.
Even if your blog only has a dozen readers, or your newsletter list only has four subscribers, those people all count. Your impact on them, through your words, counts.
Even if only ten people have ever read your novel, they count. Maybe it was a much-needed escape for one, and made a tough time
easier.
Even if you've only had one short story published, it counts. Maybe it made someone smile during a quick break in a busy day.
So this week, make some time for your writing. Even if you have "better" things to do. Even if there's laundry piling up and you can't remember when you last
dusted. Even if you have other projects you "should" be working on.
That might mean taking:
- Twenty minutes to sit down with a cup of tea and a blank notebook, to explore some ideas that have been bubbling away at the back of your mind.
- Half an hour to write a little bit more of that novel you've
"not had time" to touch for weeks.
- An hour to write something for your blog for the first time in a while.
Take that time this week (even if it means snatching a bit of time from something else).
Your writing does matter ... especially in the times
when you worry it's all a waste of time.
