The World Needs Your Story
Hello writing community. It’s been an eventful 2020, hasn’t it? I hope that you’re all staying safe and centered and grounded this week. It can be easy to feel we’ve come untethered from reality 
when we’re stuck at home with nothing but the Twitter feed for company.
And speaking of that Twitter feed, how’s your writing going? Still holding onto all that fire and fury you felt driving you to the page in the early days of lock down? Good for you! Keep up the fight.
If you’re like me, the early days were hard, motivationally speaking. And right now might not feel any better, given the state of the world.
In the tarot, we call what’s happening right now a “Tower moment.” The Tower card represents sudden and unexpected change. You may not have been looking for it, but change is here. For a lot of us, our old lives have been turned upside down and burned to the ground. The good news is that change can open up the floodgates of renewal, if we’re willing to see it.
You may find the process of change painful, but if you can remind yourself to trust the process, you’ll come through stronger. When your routine or way of thinking gets dismantled, it’s a sign that it’s time to rebuild.
Even setting all the global upheaval aside, you may feel stuck. Maybe you got a rejection on a manuscript. Maybe you got feedback telling you that those minor revisions you thought you needed actually add up to a complete rewrite. Remember that sometimes you have to allow the structure to crumble to the ground so that you can be sure all the weak spots have been found. Then you can rebuild something more magnificent in its place.
For those of you who are having trouble getting words down, wondering if it’s worth it, if you’ll ever find your voice or have something worth sharing, here’s a reminder:
The world needs your story.
Creating is hard. And creating in the midst of political, social, environmental, and spiritual upheaval can be a thousand times harder. But if you have ever had it in you to write, now is the time. If you have ever had it in you to build fictional worlds that show us what life could be like, or that reflect our demons back to us so that we can confront them more clearly, now is the time. If you’ve ever felt compelled to share a piece about your life that you think others might resonate with and find inspiration or comfort, now is the time.
The world needs your story.
Your perspective and your heart can shed light in a world that feels dark and overwhelming. And that story you’ve been fiddling with for years now, or that just popped into your mind last night, could be the life-preserver that someone else was waiting for.
So don’t give up. We need writers now more than ever. Add your voice to the chorus. The world needs your story.
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Elisabeth Kauffman is the Social Media Director for SFWC. She’s also an editor, an author, and an artist. She edits novels and memoir for independent clients as well as publishing companies, and coaches writers to find their voices and connect to the magic in their creative lives. Learn more about her at www.writingrefinery.com, back her tarot kickstarter, or email her at [email protected].
Instagram: instagram.com/fairbetty
Twitter: twitter.com/writingrefinery
Facebook: facebook.com/elisabethkauffmancoaching/
