Do you produce? Think about it for a second. Do you write outside of college, for any reason at all? Do you journal? Post reviews on Letterboxd? Send letters over text to your friends, your lovers? What other places can your thoughts be found other than your bottom lip and a submission box?

If your answer is along the lines of “rarely anywhere”, or even scarier, “nowhere”, then you are the exact person I am writing for now. Each word I am typing has been thought and crafted specifically to speak to you, to steady yourself in your ability to create on your own for yourself. This act of creation in-it-for-itself is vital not only for your wellbeing, but mine as well. Let me explain. 

Humans, unlike the regular mammal, have a capacity to create outside of direct means for survival. When we craft shelter, we can afford to craft the written word, and systems of education– keep record and pass on information because humanity has the capacity to think of generations beyond ourselves. Deer, apes, and armadillos (amongst many others) are stuck acting from moment to moment, burdened by instinct for immediate survival that prevents them from constructing anything long lasting. If we are granted such a privilege to stay in warm houses with the ability to record away ad-infinite, why would you waste a golden opportunity to have your legacy in creation linger after you are gone? If you died tomorrow, what of your talent would be left? What tangible thought will you have passed on? Would you be proud?

Now that I’ve scared you, I’ll throw you a line. I struggle terribly with writing. It’s never good enough, it’s never anything I want someone else to read, it’s all been done before and I have nothing original to add to the wider conversation; so on and so forth. All of this has been true at some point or another. It’s possible all of that is true right now, dear reader. How do we as able creators overcome this? How do we battle not only with these doubts, but our own physical limitations of “I don’t wanna!” and “I could spend my time doing much better things!” (read: on-phone-in-bed-time). 

Unfortunately, the only way to do, is to start. I have been putting off any forms of formalized personal writing since the start of the semester– about three months now. What I’ve been calling “edification essays” have taken a backseat in my mind as my brain associates drudgery and reluctance with writing, due to the vast majority of my typed words being done for grades to contribute to my future career prospects. Chronically associating creative arts like writing with it being done for a grade, for it being judged on how well of a student you are– which is often interpreted as how good of a person you are– is more damaging for the artistic psyche and soul than I can exaggerate here. You are being classically conditioned (think Pavlov’s dog!) into dreading creating! Think about how insanely sick and twisted that is! 

An argument can be made that this is done on purpose, that somewhere along the line in the American education system, a few scheming eunuch psychologists and cultural infrastructuralists found that the American people are better made sheep when you associate creation with procrastination, judgement, and pressure. There is nothing more threatening to conservative status-quo than new ideas, let alone written work about those ideas that can be shared. Oh, did you hear that? A 90 year-old congressman just shuddered. 

Whether or not you are supportive of the current establishment, whether or not you agree with my claim about creativity being inherently censored, we can at least both agree that cultivation of the individual is threatening to larger society. Going against the grain is in the name. If you hope to be anything original, special, or successful, you must start finding those sparks of entrepreneurship within you and drawing them out by writing and recording freely. Challenge yourself to be formal. Do not hide in your journals. Do not drown your thoughts in a flood of horrific, grey brain matter eating short form content online. You don’t even need to necessarily break your reliance on the dopamine addiction that is the phone: just be sure to write and record alongside doing so. Hell, write about the patterns you pick up in these reels. Write about brain numbing 67 for all I care. Just. Write. And you will be very surprised with what you come up with. I’ll leave you with this. You always have your phone on you. You nearly always have your computer as well. If you have no clue where to start, build off of what you already do. If you watch TV or movies, write little reviews on those and expand at a later time. If you spend most of your time on Tik Tok or Instagram Reels, write about your thoughts on comments you see, the pattern of Reels you get, and what your recommended algorithm says about you and what the online world assumes about what you like to engage with. If you think your classes are interesting, or if you hate them, write about why you feel that way. If you think CNN or Fox News are idiots, write about that. Your writings only ever have to be for you. It is a chance for you to take back your creativity, to take back the real estate of your brain, to take back love of what you can do, and to give a big fat “F YOU!” to grades, and a career. When you write, you translate your thoughts into words. Naturally, you become a better writer. A better speaker. Clarity of thought and an expansion of vocabulary comes more naturally as practice of both etch deeper pathways in your brain. If you think you write like a monkey, never read it back. If you think you don’t have anything to write about, write about what you’re grateful for and who you hate. All I ask is write in full paragraphs, and write about something. You got this. Now go get ‘em.