Happy Monday Morning Peps. Its been a hell of a ride for me this weekend, and with that I figured out a lot of things not only about myself but also about the world I’m trying to create. For those that don’t know, I was at Sinful Signings in Roanoke, VA with PA Power as his PA. An event that I have personally been waitlisted for three years running.
To say that it was eye opening would be an understatement. I have never been to let alone been a part of an event so established, let alone had so many authors, most of which I knew from my TikTok days. I got to meet so many amazing people, Taco and Uncle Copper among them. I also realized that some events try to have an appearance of more diverse table holders.
While networking and running around, I came to the conclusion some events just aren’t for me. Not saying if they were to come to me and say, “Hey we really would like you here.” that I would turn them down. I’m just not chasing, or begging for the chance anymore. I would say its unproductive second guessing myself, when I know who I am.
See, there’s this quiet pressure that creeps into creative work, the idea that we’re supposed to understand everything before we start. That clarity should come first. That once we know exactly what we’re doing, then we’re allowed to sit down and write/ plan our futures. But shit rarely works that way.
Most of the time, the page is where the clarity happens, not where it begins. Some days I start writing with only a feeling. A sentence that won’t leave me alone. A character whose voice keeps tapping at the back of my mind. I don’t know where the scene is going. I don’t know if it even belongs in the story yet. I just know that if I ignore it, it will keep circling until I give it somewhere to land. So I write it anyway.
Writing while things are still unclear can feel uncomfortable. It means stepping into the fog without a map. It means admitting that you don’t have all the answers yet. It’s also giving time to your work even if you just spent 72hrs peopling. But strangely enough, that’s often where the most honest work comes from.
Because uncertainty forces curiosity. Curiosity pushes the story forward, or at least gives you something to laugh about later.
When everything is perfectly planned, sometimes the writing feels mechanical, cookie cuter even. But when things are unclear, you’re discovering the story at the same time the reader eventually will. The page becomes a place of exploration instead of execution. And sometimes the words that come out during those uncertain moments reveal something deeper than anything we could have planned.
A character says something unexpected. A scene takes a darker turn. A theme emerges that you didn’t realize you were carrying.
Suddenly the fog starts to thin. Not all at once, but enough to see the next step. That’s really all writing ever asks of us: the next step. Clarity doesn’t have to arrive before the work begins. Sometimes the work is what creates it.
So if the story feels messy right now… if the direction isn’t perfectly clear… if you’re staring at a blank page wondering whether you should wait until you understand things better. Don’t wait.
Start where you are. Write the uncertain scene. Follow the half-formed idea. Let the characters talk before you know exactly what they’re trying to say. The answers often show up halfway through the paragraph. And sometimes the best stories are the ones we only understood after we wrote them.
Have you ever started writing without knowing where the story was going? Did clarity come later, or did the uncertainty lead you somewhere unexpected?
.jpg)
