Where The Story Starts

I have had the pleasure of coaching writers largely because so many people fear and avoid this thing we love to do once we actually do it. For instance, just this morning, as I was pouring my coffee, I thought, “What am I going to write about today?” I had no answer right away, and though I’d had this experience many times before, on this day it filled me with a small dread. For just a moment, I glimpsed the existential crisis that arises when I think I’m done, that the idea well has run dry.

Yet here I am. My go-to, usually, is to write about what’s bothering me because on the other side of my unhappiness is a gift I have until then refused to accept. I’d offer this approach as a solution to everyone, but I know what starts each of our creative engines is a little different. What I do know is that the well doesn’t run dry. I can feel like it’s run dry, I can hear tales about people who are certain it’s run dry, I could even write a story about not having stories to tell, but the well remains still ever full.

I once knew a man, however, who seemed to have run out of things to say. He had been very talkative all his life, had wanted to change the world, to help people, and he did so in his own way. But he had an ongoing gripe with the world, and by the time I got to know him well, that’s mostly what he talked about. The same complaint over and over. Fewer and fewer people were interested in hearing his gripes, and as he started recognizing this, he got quieter and quieter until one day, quite suddenly, he died.

I do not consider this a sad story at all. We all have our interests and irritations, but if we want to hang around for a while, the conversation must evolve. I don’t know if he was afraid to let his evolve or if he simply had said all he had come to say. He wasn’t a young man when he passed. However, young or old, our gripes must change. They are many a story’s beginning, but never its end. Answer one complaint, and you will likely discover a new one soon arises. In this way, the well is always full, our unanswered curiosity bothering us, irritating us, compelling us to change and change and change.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com