Writers Will Save The World ๐
Who inspires you to CREATE? | Finding the Right Words February Challenge โ๐พ
โThe way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.โ - Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Iโve always wanted to be a writer. Actually, I wanted to be a lot of things growing up. I was gonna be the first woman president (thereโs still time!), a chemist, a pilot, an astronautโฆBut while those childhood fantasies eventually faded into obscurity, being a writer was always at the top of the list of career choices.ย
From a young age I saw how writing could change things. My own imagination would soar from reading a good book. From reading newspapers, I was able to understand the lives of people who lived halfway across the globe. In the pages of magazines, I learned so much about what it meant to be a grown up. Reading autobiographies showed me how your life and your story could live on long after youโre gone. The written word was the coolest thing in the world to me and, in my mind, writers were the most powerful people in the world.ย
My favorite writer of all time is Ida B. Wells-Barnett.
I donโt think she crosses peopleโs minds when they think of the greatest writers of all time. She didnโt publish any novels or great works of fiction, to my knowledge. Actually, what makes her great to me is that she published the truth. Ida B. Wells was a teacher turned investigative journalist when she risked her life to document lynching against Black people in the United States. In โSouthern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phasesโ and โThe Red Record,โ Wells used her written words to turn the nations eyes to the terrorism whites were inflicting against Black people in the Southern states, and she was able to turn the tide toward racial equality.ย
Thereโs bravery in truth telling.
What inspires me most about Ida B. Wells is that she wrote in her way. She didnโt cater to the feelings of Southern white sensibilities or etiquette of the time that dictated what a womanโs place should be. She didnโt just give facts, she gave feelings by sharing stories directly from the families of lynch victims (because who knows what that tragedy really feels like better than the people who are living through it?). She told her truth, in her voice and in doing so, she gave voice to the voiceless.
Thereโs bravery in truth telling. The hardest part of my writing career has been maintaining the authenticity of my voice. Years of schooling and professional pressures and social/racial pressures combined to make me question if I was saying things the โrightโ way. Ultimately, the worry about whether I was doing things in a way that would please as many people as silenced me for a long time until I stopped writing for someone else and started writing for me.ย
I care a lot less about โrightโ these days, because whatโs right depends on who youโre asking. Iโm more concerned with whatโs real. I write the same way I speak. And I donโt write to win awards or climb a corporate ladder or to go viral. I want to make sure the words I create (and the words I help others bring to life) give hope, help, and freedom to myself and to my community.
Words are powerful. Writers are powerful. The writers will save the world.
Iโve always admired the ancestors who understood the power of the written word and did everything they could to make sure their words were taken seriously. They started newspapers and magazines. They gave speeches and sermons. They wrote poems and plays and novels about their unique yet universal Black experiences in America. Their words carry our history and our culture and their legacy and their words are living long after theyโve left the planet.
Words are powerful. Writers are powerful. The writers will save the world.
Donโt let anyone tell you that your story (and how you tell it) doesnโt matter. If our words werenโt so powerful they wouldnโt be trying so hard to stop people from reading them with book bans and character limits and shadowbanning on social media. Our stories, our own accounts of our own lives is the greatest source of news and information out there and we should never stop expressing ourselves as creatively and authentically as we can.
Because who knows what life is really like better than the person whoโs living through it? Thatโs you.
Let your words be your legacy.
This entry was written for WEEK 2 of the Finding the Right Words February Challenge under the theme INSPIRE. Follow along using the graphic above and write about whatever comes to mind with the corresponding prompts. Share with me using the tag #FTRW or email me at jdoggett9 [at] gmail.ย
Thereโs no wrong way to journal. You just gotta find the right words. Happy Writing!
There it is - Let your words be your legacy.
Thank you for this powerful and encouraging piece.
Yes! Always love to have this reminder ๐