Finding the courage to write

Sometimes I’m not sure if authentic writing is easy, or hard.  Maybe it’s both.

Sometimes I’d say it’s easy because all you need to do is write what you know: your experience,  your senses, your feelings, your values, your stuff.  There’s no one that can write that better than you.

Sometimes I’d say it’s hard because the challenge comes not in finding the words – but finding the courage to write them.

I’ve been aware of one of those challenges recently, looking for ways to find the courage to write for Liz Strauss’s ‘Change the World’ series.  Finally I realised that what I needed to do was write about just that: the times when we don’t think we’ve got the courage.  When we don’t think our words are enough.

Sometimes that’s all we can say.

Anyway – you can read the piece that I sent off to Liz last night and she (in true Liz style) published first thing this morning.  I hope you like it.

And now I’m feeling good that I found the courage as well as the words to write it – and to be able to wear this badge with pride.

I’ve been aware of Liz’s Change the World series for some time now, wanting and at the same time not wanting to write there.  Finding the words and the courage during September, my month of exploring what it means to write with authenticity, seemed like as good a time as any.