Dear Amateur Writers,
You’re the dreamers, the creators, and the doers. You’re mesmerized by the power of words. You believe that you can connect with people and change the world with the sentences that you create and the ideas that you communicate.
You live to paint pictures of the unexplainable beauty and life-changing pain that happens around you. You want others to know that they are not alone and you want to show that there are things still left to discover. You’re growing and learning every single time when you put words to paper.
It’s so hard to share your thoughts with the world. Putting your name on a piece of writing and posting it on the internet is no easy feat. Expressing your inner thoughts requires you to be vulnerable, but you do it anyways. So, why have you been getting so much negative criticism lately?
There’s a popular article going around called "An Open Letter to the Odyssey Online," that bashes the website and the writers who contribute to this website. However, why is that?
Those who write are putting themselves out there. They are learning and creating. How can anyone ever expect to grow and improve if they don’t start and make mistakes along the way?
Not everything that you write will be good. Just like anything that you learn, over time, you can see improvement. Amateur writers who share their work share this process with everyone else. The public get to see what you are proud of, where you started, and what how have improved. These writers aren’t simply “privileged college kids” who write the same repetitive trendy articles, they are students who are learning and who deserve respect.
So, please, amateur writers, don’t stop writing. Don’t stop writing open letters, listicles, or about your life in general. Share your thoughts, share your feelings, and share your stories. Write for yourself and write for the person behind the screen who smiles at your words because they feel the same way. Learn, grow, and put yourself out there. Be brave and share your art with the world.
With love,
A Fellow Amateur Writer
