Write Things: On Why Writing Matters

Hello writers,

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why we write.

Not why we publish.
Not why we finish books.
Just why we return to the page at all.

At the heart of it, writing—personal or fictional—has inherent value, whether it’s ever shared or not.

Mindset Shift: Remember Why

Some writers feel pressure to turn everything they write into something shareable. Others aren’t sure they ever want to publish, or even complete a full project. Both positions are understandable. Both come with their own kind of tension.

What’s easy to forget is that writing has value long before anyone else sees it.

Writing takes some of the charge out of hard moments.
It creates distance where things once felt overwhelming.
It slows experiences down enough for us to look at them from more than one angle.

When we write, we’re not just recording what happened. We’re placing it in context. We’re noticing patterns. We’re discovering what mattered to us—sometimes for the first time.

Writing helps us understand ourselves more clearly.
It also helps us understand the world we’re moving through—other people, situations, choices, losses, hopes.

You don’t have to justify writing by promising an outcome.

You can write because it steadies you.
Because it puts things in perspective.
Because something loosens or clarifies when the words finally land on the page.

Finishing and publishing are real, meaningful choices. But they’re not the reason writing matters in the first place. They’re what can come later, once the practice itself has done its quiet work.

Writing doesn’t need an audience to be worthwhile.

It just needs your attention.

—

Stories Chosen to Be Shared

One of the things I love most about working with writers is noticing which pieces they decide to share when the choice is theirs.

Not the most polished ones.
Not the ones that feel “important enough.”
But the ones that mattered.

Last season in the Write Things Community, writers were invited to choose a short piece of writing to share publicly. These were the stories they decided to offer—moments they wanted to honour, questions they were still living with, scenes that felt true enough to speak aloud.

Those recordings are now part of The Write Things Podcast.

If you haven’t listened yet, I’d encourage you to check it out. Not to compare your work, but to hear the many different reasons people write—and the kinds of value writing holds for them, regardless of whether a piece ever becomes something “finished” or published.

You can find the podcast here:
👉 https://www.ihelpyouwritethings.com/podcasts/write-things-podcast/episodes/2149133567

Sometimes hearing other writers name why a piece mattered to them is enough to remind us of our own reasons for returning to the page.

Wishing you and your stories all the best,
Trevor Martens
Founder, I Help You Write Things

P.S. Writing doesn’t have to prove anything to be meaningful. Sometimes the value is simply that something shifted while you were paying attention.