Your brain on writing: No one cares. No one is going to read this. Why am I even doing this? Hemingway did it better. Didion did it better.
Do you ever stop yourself before you press the first key? Write the first letter? Does your ego quiver at the mere thought of your words out in the ether, only having the squiggly of an errant ‘Q’ for warmth? Same. So why are we drawn to this trade, where so many of us become marketers and forget to nourish the philosopher within, the inquisitor, the shot-counter?
Because it’s instinctual to do what comes easy. At least, admittedly, it is for me. It’s hard to drop my unvalidated thoughts into a public-facing post—no matter how tucked into the Google results I am. But this is why writers exist. We do it to express, not for ego, not for recognition; we do it because we have to or our heads will tick, tick, tick their way to explosion.
I write this to validate myself and whatever creative soul creeps their way onto this page: being a marketing copywriter does not detract from your ability to take a stand as a creative writer. In the best of cases, your job will allow you the luxury of writing for something you believe in; this is where the magic happens in copywriting. It’s not an absolute, but it happens. Regardless, you cannot stop expressing yourself creatively in other outlets. Am I yelling this at myself inside my head right now? Yes.
Listen, bottom line is no one else is going to get inside your head and put things down the way you will. We’ve all read something at some point and been astonished by the fact that ‘wow, someone feels that too?!’ and ‘damn, if I had known I would’ve written it first!’ Take the chance. Scramble words together that feel like they haven’t happened before, stream-of-consciousness your way to expression. It doesn’t matter where it sits out there in the ether, all that matters is that it was true.