Tell us your story (about writing ✍)

Our mission is to get people writing. To encourage them to tell their stories. To share the joys of life, and to express the struggles. To discover the wonders of the planet and its people, and to conceive of worlds which others have never imagined. To explore the art of language and how to tell a story.

Thousands of people, like you, have decided to join us on a journey. The account has been dormant for a while, but it’s time to explore what the journey could entail. We have some ideas, but before we explore those much further, we want to hear from you. How can we inspire you to get writing?

If you are at all interested in writing, please do share your thoughts and help us by responding below. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a few sentences, it doesn’t matter if you want to write multiple pages. We’ll read them all. The biggest hurdle is convincing you to respond and to share your thoughts as opposed to assuming that someone else will and you keep on scrolling.

To make things a little easier for you, I’ve made a list of questions that might help you. You can respond to a few, you can respond to them all. Your thoughts are valued. Please do share them.

✍ What’s your biggest hurdle in starting to write? Daring to pick up a pen? Not appreciating that you have a story to tell? Not feeling able to express yourself in words?

✍ How often do you write? How often do you want to write, but don’t actually start writing? What stops you?

✍ How varied is your writing? Do you like writing with a fixed theme, form or style? Or do you enjoy exploring?

✍ Do you let others read your writing? People you trust, or strangers? With which intent? Or why not?

✍ Do you set out to tell your own story, or conceive of a world which others have never imagined?

✍ Do you set yourself goals for writing? What types of goals? How often? Do you achieve them?

✍ Where do you write, when do you write? On paper, or digitally?

✍ What does the digital world offer for your writing? Inspiration, an audience? Do you blog / tweet? Does it trigger conversation / thought. How do you notice, where does it leave you?

✍ Why do you write? What does it mean to you? What do you want it to mean to others?

✍ Do you ever spend money on your writing? What do you buy?

✍ When do you prefer to talk, when do you prefer to write? What can writing achieve that talking can’t?

✍ Are writing prompts useful? How do they help? By setting a scene, or just by triggering you to pick up a pen?

✍ Should prompts be a word/phrase, or a sentence? A word might allow you to tell your own story, a sentence might mean you’re creating a new story?

✍ Do you write in a foreign language? How does it differ from writing in your mother tongue?

✍ One way to explore writing is to read. How do you choose what to read? What do you learn about writing, by reading?

✍ Do you ever talk with others about writing? Who with? What do you learn?

✍ Do you write a diary? What sorts of things do you write about? How does it help you?

✍ What does improving your writing mean to you? Learning how to tell a story? Learning to explore the art of language? Learning how to provoke thought, or imagination?

✍ Did these questions help you think a little deeper about writing? Has pondering them helped you in any way?

That’s enough from me, hopefully there’s something for everyone. Please do respond with your thoughts (and ❤ this post to help others find it).