The Instinct

I'm a writer. You're a writer.

Deep down, we know who we are.

We know we are meant to take pen to paper. 

But on the days you doubt yourself, what convinces you?

I can point to many things in my own life. Voracious reading habits as a child, the notebooks I kept during family vacations, the stories I wrote in fifth grade I thought were actually complete novels. 

While driving to work one day, with a glimmer of morning fog still rising over the wetlands, and two white herons stretching their necks, it occurred to me. 


Writing has always been my first instinct.


Any experience, any trip, any sadness, any moment of insight or inspiration, any good meal, my first instinct has always been to write about it. 

The medium has shifted over the years. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction, food blogging.

But the urge to understand the world and my role in it through the act of writing, documenting, and creating, has always existed.

It will always exist.

I'd love to hear from you, too. How do you know you're a writer? What makes you convinced, even on days you question the path?