WAKE UP AND WRITE
The World Needs Your Story
No one can tell it better than you
Wake Up and Write is a regular advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Brittnay Barnett— an attorney and criminal justice reform advocate and author of A Knock At Midnight— who shared writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.
“My advice to aspiring authors is: do it. Share your story. The world needs your story.”
“No one can tell your story or any fictional story you’re dreaming up better than you. The world needs it. That is the motivation I received. I want to pass that along.
I found time to write in between my work [as an attorney]. I had hoped to set aside a period of time to just focus solely on the book, but freedom calls. As my shirt says, there’s nothing more urgent than freedom. I was still able to set aside blocks of time to write and blocks of time to work. [Writing] was a process that was therapeutic, as I talked so much about my childhood experiences and having a mother who was incarcerated. I had to really be gentle with myself while writing that.
I wanted to really show [my clients’] heartbeats on the page in hopes that their lives and stories could impact the reader the way it impacted me in real life. I was dealing with such a vulnerable population. Mass incarceration still has all these stigmas and stereotypes attached that if I chose one wrong word, it could perpetuate these negative biases. I was really intentional with my clients’ stories. I really held them close to heart. I’m so hopeful that people see their brilliance and genius and how truly amazing they are. I say all the time: many people in prison are not bad people. They just made bad choices, just as we all do every day. Having a chance at redemption is something truly powerful.”
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