What if we didn't need to "make a point"? Every time I sit down to write, I start thinking of a topic. That's the easy part. Then I start asking myself, "What do I want people to take away from this?" That's when everything falls apart, or as I really feel like saying, turns to sh*t. Frustration takes over because I could drive myself nuts thinking of how to phrase my words perfectly so that the majority of people will walk away with the information I want them to have.
Meaning is Personal
If there were sound effects, you would be hearing the needle scratch across a record right now. Why? Because I am not a content marketer. I am not a marketer. I am not here to tell you what or how to think. I am here to create. I create something that means something to me. A place I've been, an experience I've lived through. I can tell you how I got there, what happened to me and what I did about it, but you will never go through the same thing as me. It's impossible. To start with, you are not me. You are you. Personally, I like it that way. But even if you experience the same thing as me, it didn't happen at the same time or the same place and if you look at all the details, for as similar as the situation was, it has many more differences. So why would I even share anything with you?
The Art of Creation
By creating something, and allowing others to see it, we are sharing our art. My words may never be compared to a painting by Dali or statue by Picasso, but they are my creation. The beauty of art lies in how you view it. It's personal. You may relate to it, you may not. You may take something away from it or you could ignore it. My job as the artist is to create, not to form judgement.
As soon as I started deciding what I wanted you to take away from my writing, I was altering my work to elicit a specific response from you. I was forming a judgement on how you would react. All storytellers could be marketers, but not every marketer can be a storyteller.
So What Truly Matters?
If I wanted you to buy this, or sign up for that, or make you want to go tell your friends about them, this post could still be told as story, but would have a very different message. And that is the point of this post. Do we really need everything to have a point? I think this has been what has been holding me back. Preventing me from creating. It had me focused on producing, which is work, not art. So take from this what you want, because I certainly didn't have any point when I started writing it and still don't.