I’ve felt a little sorry for myself as a writer lately.

I have grand ideas and vision, but I’m, essentially, in full-on mommy-mode; when writing does and should come second.

This difficult balancing act of mother and passionate writer has had me questioning the real reasons for why I write.

I write because I can’t not write. I love blogging—truly I do. I love connecting with other writers, and with readers, and I feel purposeful when I receive feedback that my words gave life to someone else’s feelings—someone I’ve never met in real life—or that my words gave another new mom motivation to practice yoga that day, for example.

But we don’t write for recognition or popularity or to have made it on the cover of a particular website—although sometimes it feels like this is what a real writer does; who a real writer is.

No, we write because we have no choice.

I was talking with my husband a few weeks ago about how the internet, Instagram, blogging, etc seems to be changing the intention for many writers.

Some writers forget that true art exists because the artist had no choice but to create it—many of our most famous works achieved their highest success after the artist was long gone from this world.

Because truly great art is not made for the world. It’s made because one human heart nurtured an idea, and let it grow and grow, until it finally had no choice but to be birthed.

Actually, this is another reason why many blogs would be better if the writer had privately journaled the idea for personal contemplation before bringing it out in published form.

I know many writers, myself included, who still use pens and paper to write with. This is a great way to really grab a thought before it’s put up live online, and, really, before anything is out there and into the world forever, it’s best for the author to deeply contemplate why this should be published in the first place.

Not everything needs to be published.

That overly personal article about sex? It might have been better off quietly shared and sent as a love letter to that one special muse.

That article discussing how poor of a parent someone’s ex-spouse is? Yeah, that’s not exactly great for the kids to have this information available for anyone and their own mother to read.

So why do we write and then share with the world at large? Or, rather, why should we?

We write because we must. We write because we have no choice. We write compulsively—on the side of the road when a blazing idea strikes or in the middle of the night when we awake with a wonderful thought. However, we publish because an idea would benefit the world at large, whether in simple art form because of poetic beauty, or because it’s full of helpful life experiences that could do wonders if sent out as little love notes all over the world.

But the world these days seems to cry out for drama and fighting and contrast.

How much of what is published and then actually does well, does so because of an incredibly brutal title or almost offensive accompanying photograph? A whole hell of a lot of it, that’s what.

And, yes, we can say that people are clicking on this shit and so it’s our own faults; fair, fair—to a point.

Because, as true writers, we need to access our own intentions. In other words, we need to claim responsibility and seek out publications that are looking for real art and words of real benefit and not click-bait crap. While this is not to say that click-bait crap will go away, we, as deliberate writers, are the ones with the words.

There is power in words.

Words can hurt—words can also heal.

Words can shape young minds, words can instigate positive life changes, and words can make our hearts beat faster from their sheer ferocity.

In short, a real writer is not someone who has so many followers on Twitter or who has so many articles published in various online magazines. No, a real writer is someone who leaks their soul out through fingertips and onto pages—and a great writer, I would argue at least, is someone who knows when to click “publish” and when to close the book and put the pen down, until the next time the right words call.

Photo: Flickr/content writer.

The post Not Everything Needs to Be Published. first appeared on Jennifer S. White.

“For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.” ~ Jean Dubuffet

There’s a spark that flickers within all of us.

Sometimes it burns and burns and catches fire.

Yet for others, it’s put out by the occasionally cruel world or, worse, by ourselves.

There are legendary, and frequent, sad stories of this fire growing out of control—consuming the talent, the person, or both—but there are more stories of flames that could light the entire night sky, for all the world to enjoy—and it’s these that we’ll celebrate within this particular piece.

Here are 26 signs of an artistic, creative soul:

1. We don’t wait for inspiration—we are the inspiration.

2. We might still have a day job, but that doesn’t hinder creative—or productivity.

3. We believe in ourselves, even when it feels like the world does not.

4. We are tenacious—and not only because we know that an artistic temperament is dogmatic, but because we have no choice but to keep on creating.

5. While we believe in ourselves, we also believe in the talent of others—we drink in the art and work of our peers and we learn from it whenever possible.

6. We know that our early work is definitely different from our emerging, more sculpted talent—and we can’t wait to forever witness our own growth continually take shape.

7. We take breaks from producing in order to live, but we never take breaks from being creative; finding fodder in life too.

8. We never work tomorrow when we can work today.

9. We appreciate other art forms.

10. Creative souls come in a variety of colors and styles, but one thing that regularly matches is our passion, our drive and our willingness to be different.

11. We think “weird” is a compliment.

12. We don’t follow the rules of tried-and-true molds from previous artists—we create fresh, new ones.

13.  We may or may not have good business sense, but we absolutely see the benefits—and joys—of networking.

14. When we tell people that we’re “self-employed,” we don’t care if they think it’s code for “unemployed.”

15. Even when “self-employed” feels like it translates to “unemployed,” we continue forth with our dreams because we can’t do anything else.

16. Our work clothes and our play clothes are often the exact same thing.

17. We’re observant—we may or may not be empaths (many of us are), but all of us have “observant” encrypted within our DNA.

18. We expect failure.

19. And then we get back up.

20. Time does not exist when we are working within our medium.

21. Whether introverted or extroverted, we see alone time as a way to rejuvenate, and we see social opportunities as a way to become inspired.

22. We believe in ourselves, but we can be pretty harsh critics too.

23. We generally have problems with authority, because we embody innovation.

24. We aren’t afraid to ask questions.

25. We care more about quality than quantity (and this includes public opinion).

26. We’re moody—and we take advantage of this with our art.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

~ Steve Jobs

Photo credit fotologic/Flickr.

The post 26 Signs of a Creative Soul. first appeared on Jennifer S. White.