My Writing Journey

Starting this blog has been hard. I have started and stopped it too many times to count. I have made commitments to myself about writing and I have made excuses when I did not fulfill those promises. Ultimately, I believe that I was not ready – not ready to put myself down into words, let others read them, and allow them to see me. And while I do not know what has shifted within me, I now feel ready to share my voice. What I have to say may get lost in the chorus of voices already out in the world or everyone may hate me or think that what I write is pointless and boring, but I do not care. I am ready. Okay, so I’m ready to write, but what should I write about? While I do not yet have an answer for that very good question, maybe I can find one by thinking this through. What should I write about?

Over the last several years, I have taken courses on creative writing, read books on the writing process, and listened to podcasts about the writing journey. Almost all the sources I have encountered offer advice on how to find ideas to write about or how to battle writer’s block. Some of these answers have been focused on psychology, others have been practical exercises, and, sometimes, there are original answers. And, eventually, the available writing advice suggests some variation of the following – write what you know. While this tidbit of wisdom is not wrong, it is also an oversimplification of a specifically vague concept. What we know is not something that can be easily quantified or defined. Our base of knowledge is in constant flux, changing as we learn new things and meet new people and grow as individuals. My own knowledge base is so wide that my poor brain has too many options to choose between. That bit of advice may not be very helpful to me at this moment.

Another common piece of advice is to find your niche. If you were to ask, “What is a niche?” I would reply, “Great question! According to the Bing search engine, a niche is ‘a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.’” Concerning my question (what should I write about?), a niche refers to the audience that I want to write for. Finding one’s niche is not always as easy as it sounds. A good first step can be to write from within your work experience and use what you are already an expert in. However, I have worked in several different jobs and industries that do not add up into a cohesive career path with a single direction. I do have interests and hobbies outside of those jobs and that could be another path to finding a person’s niche. Maybe I am an amateur expert in one of those interests. How are we supposed to know if we are an expert? What is an expert, anyway? And, am I an expert in anything? It may even be possible that I am an expert in a couple of different areas.

I apologize for the sudden barrage of questions. Let’s get back to the word expert. The accepted definition for expert (n) is a person who has a high level or comprehensive or special knowledge and/or skill in a particular area or subject or field or activity. This garbled mash-up of definitions is not really helping answer my original question (what should I write about?). Based on this general definition, I could be a general expert on just about anything. For example, I learned how to wrap an amputee’s surgical wound properly by intentionally and attentively watching a surgeon wrap my husband’s new residual limb. I wanted to know how to recreate the compression effect of the wrapping and watched what the doctor did closely. After trying and failing several times, I was able to effectively and neatly wrap my husband’s limb. The nurses that came into our home to care for his surgical wound and the re-wrapping of his leg were not as skilled at compression wrapping an amputated leg as I was. These professionals, who have attended classes and training, received diplomas and certifications, are the unquestioned experts in this scenario. But they asked me to teach them what I was doing. Does that make me a specialist in wrapping residual limbs? Or does that make me really good at learning? Could I be an expert at learning? Hmm . . . Hold onto that question for a moment, let’s get back to the meaning of the word, expert.

What I find most interesting about this word is that in Latin, the language it was originally used in, expert was an adjective that meant to have tried or to know by experience or to have risked. And is that not what we, as humans, try to do every day? We will take a risk and try a thing causing us to learn something or gain knowledge through the experience. Does that make us experts? Yes! Yes, it does. We are experts on living. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am constantly trying new things and testing myself. Maybe a more complete and modern definition of expert, at least for our purposes here, could be a person who has tried and succeeded, someone who was willing to test themselves and risk everything for a chance to know more. Based on that definition, I am certain that I am an expert, several times over. But more importantly, I now know can become an expert in almost*^[1] anything — or everything — that I want to learn about. And I love to learn! Plus, I think I may be an expert at learning.

My question has evolved from (what should I write about?) into (what should I learn about next?) multiplying my available options by infinity and that should scare me. When I started this exploration, I felt overwhelmed by having too many possibilities in front of me. Now that I have thought through the question a little, I am feeling blessed by the prospect. I realize that I don’t have to be an expert to write about something. Rather, I can learn about something and then write about it and then, maybe, become an expert. This blog is about giving myself the space to explore all of my questions, find all of my right answers, and learn whatever I still need to learn. And while starting a blog is still hard, I have a feeling that it will be worth it.

^[1] This does not include topics or professions that require extensive education and certification. My journey is best described as self-education on a budget.