Courage

Writing is sometimes the most courageous thing I can do.

Writing has never just been something I did; it's always been something important to me, and something that I knew I would one day pursue as a career. (If I'm being honest, I pretty much started pursuing it the second I started.) When I was younger, though, writing was often a lot easier than it is now.

When I was younger, I was more courageous; more confident. I thought I was the best writer there was (a thought I wish I could think now), and everything I wrote, I wrote fearlessly. Now, even getting one person to read my work gets my heart thumping with nervousness.

I've realized over the past couple of years that some of my writing is actually very personal. When I go back and read some of the stuff that I wrote during the harder and lonelier times of my life, I can see all of the emotions I was feeling at the time woven into it. All of my fears were written into the conflict; the things I wish I had the courage to say were spoken through the main character's mouth.

Although the majority of my writing isn't quite as personal as it was then, a lot of my stories are still inspired by my life. Not real life events, per say, but plots inspired by emotions I've felt in the past, or by daydreams of things I wished would happen to me. (I zone out a lot so this happens more than I'd like to admit.)

Regardless of where it comes from, I still immerse myself completely in my writing. Each piece I write has some form of me in it; my history, my personality, my dreams and fears and wildest fantasies. Sharing them is hard, sometimes, even if no one knows that they're there.

Writing is my way of speaking to the world. Writing is my way of being brave. Because my writing is me, in my simplest and truest form.


Until later,

- Justyne