“A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.”
― Stephen King

When I first started really writing I did so for several reasons. Like many writers, I was kept up by the ideas in my head. The stories and characters haunted my dreams, supernaturally compelling me to put them down on paper. Apparitions of words and sentences would move through my mind at inopportune times. In the black of night, a sentence or two would spark into a novel that would weave through my dreams. I wanted to write because I had stories to tell (even if the stories weren't good or well told). However, the thing that really forced me to put pen to paper was pain.

My first writings came from a time of insecurity, depression, and (to be really honest) teenage angst. I was angry and hurt. The world was dark and full of monsters. Writing fiction was the first and only catharsis I had. I didn't have much of a social life or friends, but I did have an imagination. When loneliness and pain filled my nights, I would wake up and write about monsters worse than those pains. My first writings were horror stories simply because they channeled the pain the best. The more I wrote, the darker the stories, but the brighter I felt.

My stories had no happy endings. They were chockful of characters who were hurt and flawed, a twisted mirror of the darkness they faced on the outside. Sometimes, the good guys were in all actuality the true monsters. It was all indicative of the way I felt then. When I felt alone, I would squeeze that agony into ink, and put it in my pen. The writings didn't have to be good. Writing the story was the only thing that mattered, I could improve later. With every story put on the page, my soul was a bit lighter. Writing turned out to be the best medicine for an aching and lonely heart filled with insecurity. Accomplishing a task improved confidence, while the transcription of horrific dreams destroyed them. It was as if I was defeating my demons by exposing them to the light of the world.

I don't pretend to be a good writer because I don't believe that I am good. Nor am I someone without problems or pains even know, but I can honestly say writing changed me. Somewhere in those dimensions of hopelessness, I found hope. Somehow the heroes started winning. If you are dealing with some kind of pain (even if it is as silly as teenaged angst) then writing can be one of the most effective ways to sooth that pain. Don't worry about perfection, or writing something "good." Simply write for yourself first, and let everything else come later.