‘Maybe I’m the only one who feels this… or thinks like this… or sees it this way… or likes it sounding like this.’   When writing, that’s often followed by, ‘So let me make it more like something I’ve heard before, something safer’.  Very common thoughts, I believe, when deciding what subject to write about, what line comes next, what chord or melody note to choose.

But part of the writer’s job is to address that which most people feel but do not admit to… until they encounter a work of art – a song, a film, a show, a painting, a poem – that serves as the hammer to break the ice of denial that builds up around everyone’s heart in the process of living.

So when we writers feel, when we’re writing, that same human denial – that our private and most vulnerable feelings are unique and no one must know about them – part of our gig is to break through that ice first and trust that someone else feels that way too – which is usually true.  Courage!