Inside Out

It’s an inside-out world we live in. I know it doesn’t seem that way most of the time. Well, maybe it does when you’re writing. There’s lots of stuff all around you when you sit down to work, but none of it is of any help, unless you want to write about chipped paint on the wall, or the ring lamp behind your monitor, or the World’s Okayest Dad mug your kid gave you for Father’s Day – which you don’t. What you want to write about, what you want to bring forward to the page, exists in a place only you can see, and that place is inside of you.

I guess. I don’t really know where it is. I’ve never seen it with my eyes, never heard it with my ears. I’ve only ever felt it and related to it. Easy to think it’s not real, especially compared to all that’s outside of me, which on most days seems like everything. There are the cars and trees and cats and buildings and lampposts and shopping malls we can all see and point to and talk about. There are the other people going from here to there, saying things and buying things and doing things. That’s life, right? There it is, all around me. There’s what I’m here to join, be a part of, to succeed or fail in. There’s everything that matters.

On my best days, the world feels like a nice playground. What would you like to do? I ask myself. Who would you like to talk to? These are cheery questions only I could possibly answer. Then, however, there are the days when I have become transfixed by everything around me, and I find myself asking things like: What does The Market want? Or, How can I please these people? I have no idea how to answer these questions, really, yet they seem so important. On the darkest days, they seem more important than anything else.

I’ve forgotten where I actually live, where everyone lives. I have only ever enjoyed that playground of life and all the people in it when I remember that my pleasure and satisfaction begin where I find my stories. If I look for it elsewhere, I’m lost. We never stop telling our stories, not ever. There may not be a page for us to write on, but we’re still telling them in every thought we think, every word we speak, every hand we shake. Let it be a story you’d want to read, the kind of story where you find yourself wishing you were a part of, since you already are.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

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