Sometimes writing is fueled by emotion.

I’m feeling something, and I need to express it.

Writing is cathartic, a relief, a way to twist the valve and reduce the pressure. I’ve been doing this type of writing since I was about 10 years old, when I started keeping a journal. I still journal daily.

I also wrote a bunch of terrible poetry through my teenage years, when emotions were running high and everything had a way of feeling catastrophic.

I still do that, too.

Some of the emotion-fueled writing ends up here or here, where it tends to embarrass me later, but that’s okay. Being okay with embarrassment is a superpower I cultivate purposely.

Sometimes writing is fueled by curiosity.

I like being the dumbest person in the room. But I don’t like staying dumb.

Writing helps me learn. When I write, I often start with one idea in mind and end up writing about something different.

What I’m doing is figuring out what I’m thinking as I’m writing. I have many many drafts and outlines where that’s all I’m doing. Writing is thinking with a visible record. When you think on a page, instead of just in your head, it’s easier to hold on to your thoughts. You can go back and read them. And sometimes you think: Hm. That was a really dumb thought. I should change that thought.

But if it’s a fleeting thought, in and out of your brain, you may never pin it down long enough to realize it’s dumb.