Who Says I Can’t Write?

This article is about the obstacles that I have been up against while on my way to becoming a writer.  I hope to give other writers the courage to keep writing not matter what obstacles are in their way.

Many years ago I decided that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.  I had several poems published before I was out of high school.  I knew that I had a natural talent when it came to expressing emotions through my words.  I had the ability to engage the emotions of the people who read my poetry.  Writing became my outlet for all of the emotional turmoil that I was going through.  I was receiving positive feedback from family and friends about the emotion packed poems that I was so good at writing . . . except for one negative voice.  That one negative voice told me to stop writing because my poetry was too depressing – as I already stated, my writing was my emotional outlet so it did lean toward being depressing, but it was still beautiful.  Unfortunately, I listened to this one negative voice and stopped writing.

After a couple years had gone by, the urge to write became overwhelming and so I started writing again . . . only this time I was writing short stories for adults.  I wrote these stories off and on for around 5 years.  Once again I was getting positive feedback from my friends that I allowed to read these stories.  I did not allow my family members to read these stories since it was a side of me that I really didn’t want them to know about.  Once again I felt that I was on my way to becoming a writer . . . but the one negative voice popped up again.  This time I was told to stop writing because what I was writing was “sinful” . . . so once again I stopped writing.

I was able to resist the temptation to write for several years but the urge became too strong. I started writing poetry again to help me cope with my emotional turmoil and the stressful environment that I was living in. I tried to stick with writing positive sappy poems about love and being happy. I found it very hard to write since those were not the emotions that I was feeling. I was feeling like my brain was turning to mush because I wasn’t using it. I had so many thoughts that I wanted to share but I didn’t have an outlet for those thoughts . . . until I found HubPages.

The moment I published my first article on HubPages, I finally felt like I was doing what I was meant to do.  I was able to share my thoughts and views on the world around me.  It didn’t hurt that I would be able to make a dime or two while sharing my articles, but that is not the main reason I write.  I have published a combination of poetry and useful articles.  I also have 2 blog pages where I am able to publish my random thoughts on the world around me.  The topics for my articles have ranged from depression to domestic abuse to eating disorders to mental mindsets and more.    This article will be #15 that I have published on HubPages . . . and once again I have had that negative voice pop up.  This person has had something negative to say about every article I have written, even though they have not read part of the articles – they just assumed from the title that the articles are about them.  (Everyone knows what assuming does!!)  The person(s) in question were not even thought about while I was writing most of the articles.  I am sorry if they can see themselves in the articles but (to me) it just means that they need to make some changes in their own lives.

Yesterday morning I was making a list of possible topics for my next article.  I made the mistake of posting a comment about two of the possible topics, which seems to have started a lot of drama.  I was basically told that if I write an article on religion, I will lose my internet so that I will not be able to write any more articles.  At first I was really mad . . . to the point of seeing red.  Who do this people think they are to tell me what I can and cannot write about?

After doing a lot of thinking last night, I have come to the conclusion that I have certain rights that are protected by the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.  Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion are the first two that come to my mind.  Freedom of the Press is another one since I am publishing my articles.  Since these rights are protected, their threats really have no impact on my writing.

For all other aspiring writers out there that are running into similar negative voices, I encourage you to keep writing.  It is not easy to get past these obstacles but it can be done.  Your family and friends should be showing you encouragement and should not be trying to discourage you from achieving your dreams.