I was so excited to write but I’m stuck
I feel like most stories about my life are boring and there’s nothing interesting to write about that I would feel comfortable sharing with you or anyone else. It sucks away all my inspiration to write even though I usually feel like I want to write after reading stories. I’m not trying to write long or anything, I can’t even come up with small stuff. I’m open to writing fictional stories too but I’m struggling to come up with interesting ideas there too. It’s been really discouraging to me. Do you have any advice on how to get over this?
It sounds like you have a lot of very interesting stories but you don’t feel comfortable sharing them.
Something I’ve learned from my own experience of sharing stories that were scary to share is that no one cares. People care if you write a good story, and they like reading it, but no one cares about what you do in your life. So, for example, if you stole jewelry from your friends to get extra money, people wouldn’t care because it doesn’t affect them. Maybe your parents would care, or your very best friend, but most people wouldn’t care at all. They’d just want to hear the story.
Judging people and shaming people takes a lot of time and energy and we don’t give that time and energy to other people — we save it for ourselves. So you probably have stories where you judge yourself and you feel shame, and you assume other people would have that reaction to you. But other people won’t care. And, in fact, that’s the much bigger problem with writing; when we finally get the guts to write our real stories, it turns out that if we don’t write them really well, no one cares.
So I suggest that you write one of the stories you feel uncomfortable writing. I am most excited as a writer when I am uncomfortable and scared by my own writing. I think that might be true for you, too.
Penelope
I find it’s easiest to write about topics about which I’m very knowledgeable. I’ve always loved writing but the highest praise I got was for an essay describing a food item that I love. So, it’s easy to write about day-to-day life or opinions. I just remind myself who will be reading it, like if it’s a neighborhood forum with real identity.