Write Things: On Trusting Your Creativity

Hello writers,

Every once in a while, I’m reminded just how generous creativity can be when we give it even the smallest opening. This week’s podcast is one of those reminders.

Four writers from the Write Things Community took a single prompt — “An apology” — and followed it through instinct, curiosity, and the rawest form of creative trust. What began as simple quick writes became four beautifully developed pieces, each completely different in tone, style, and intention.

You can listen to all four here:
👉 Write Things Podcast, Episode 4

These pieces didn’t emerge from planning or pressure — they began in the same place all genuine stories begin:

a moment of listening.

THE PRACTICE OF LISTENING TO CREATIVITY

Most writers have been taught to believe creativity is something you chase — something fickle, unreliable, or inconsistent. But in truth, it’s always speaking.

What we lack isn’t creativity.
What we lack is trust.

This is why quick writes matter so much.

A quick write bypasses the part of your mind that doubts, questions, or censors. It gives your creativity a chance to reveal what’s already moving beneath the surface. It teaches you to follow impulses instead of controlling them. It teaches you to write before you judge.

And through this practice — small, fast, imperfect — self-trust grows.

Because when you allow your words to appear without expectation, you begin to realize something powerful:

Your creativity has always known the way.
You were just talking over it.

THIS WEEK’S PROMPT: An Apology

Set a timer for 4 minutes.
Take a breath.
Write the first thing that comes to you.

Don’t search for the “right” story.
Don’t edit while you write.
Don’t explain or justify — simply follow what arrives.

If something in you wants to expand it afterward into a fuller piece, follow that urge.
And if it remains a quick burst of clarity or emotion, that’s perfect too.

Share it if you want. Keep it private if you don’t.
This is your creative space, your awareness, your relationship to yourself.

WHAT CAME UP FOR THREE WRITERS WHEN THEY LISTENED

Here are three quick writes from members of the Write Things Community. Each one followed the same prompt — An apology — and each one discovered something entirely its own.

1. Linda E.

My friend didn't want to come with me to see the stand-up show, so I went alone. I sat in the second row but to the far right so I wouldn't be a target.

I had just been through one of the worst weeks of my life and I just needed to get out, be with others, have a laugh. To forget.

A woman who seemed to have also arrived alone as I did, sat beside me and introduced herself. We knew some people in common as Winnipeggers do, and our conversation turned to the events of the week. Tears formed in my eyes and I was thankful it was a dark room so this woman couldn't see. But she knew. She held my hand and I wept. She had been through the same darkness I was experiencing. She didn't tell me to feel better, that things happen for a reason, she just stood up and walked in front of where I sat. I was drawn to stand up and face her which is when she embraced me. She hugged me for a few minutes while I sobbed into her shoulder.

She had managed to put the broken pieces of my heart together at that moment
and I knew that I could go on and make it through another night.

2. Catherine S.

HE I said I was sorry didn’t I?

SHE Not good enough.

HE What the H? You always want more, more, more.

SHE You are the one who hit me.

HE That was an accident. You came through just as I was going out.

SHE Yes but you used the wrong side. It’s a swinging door for Peters sake!

HE Oh, you and your rules.

SHE They are meant to be followed so you don’t hit people. You could have broken my nose.

HE Yes, but you didn’t have to trip me up.

SHE That WAS an accident. You hit me… the door hit me. I lost my balance.

HE And you tripped me up.

SHE As I was falling.

HE I grabbed you didn’t I?

SHE Yes. We both know how that turned out!!

HE Uh, ya. I didn’t mean to grab your… you know.

SHE Well I hope it felt better for you than it did for me.

3. Shawna T.

I’m in a crumbling poor neighborhood of Mexico City. I enter in through a small street and a couple walks up to me curious about my presence. I don’t exactly blend into the streets of Mexico City with my pale skin and my big camera in hand. Guerita, soy. Their curiosity and mine walk around together for a while. We learn about the other. I visit with them in their basement apartment, filled with Winnie the Poohs — small world, I’m from Winnipeg too. Comfortable in this barrio, now walking on my own once more.

I pass some drunken men who have a good laugh at my expense. I’m either brave or naive, never quite sure. Two girls on a rooftop yell down to me. “¡Súbete al techo, hay buena vista!” They’re inviting me to see the view on their rooftop. Flash second of “Should I?” and I’m traveling up a few flights of stairs.

They walk away leaving me on the roof with laundry sheets flapping in the wind behind me. I take pictures of the view. Of shabby rooftops and a dirty river glowing in the light of a low evening sun. I turn. My jaw drops and my shutter finger freezes as I stumble with the camera. Blurry overexposed shot for sure. An old woman in a tiny storage closet the size of the cot she sits on, alone with Virgin Mary on the wall. Watching me through bed sheets blowing in the wind.

I sit with her till almost dark. She’s ill but she doesn’t tell me about that. She tells me her story of true love. A beautiful story it is. The love of her life is gone now. She tells me the story again. And again. And again. Her memory failing.

I’ll never forget.

⭐ FINAL WRITING GROUPS OF THE YEAR — REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

If you’d like to bring your writing to life inside a community that supports courage, curiosity, and creative self-trust, I’m opening registration for the final writing groups of the year.

You’re welcome to bring a piece inspired by this week’s prompt — or anything else you feel called to write — to your very first class.

👉 You can register here: 

These groups fill quickly, and they are one of my favourite ways to help writers discover their voice, deepen their craft, and build consistency with support.

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment, this is it.

IN CLOSING

Creativity is always speaking.
Sometimes in whispers, sometimes in flashes, sometimes in a rush of words you didn’t expect.

Quick writes give you the chance to meet it where it lives — in the present, not the perfect.

And when you learn to trust that voice, even for four minutes at a time, something shifts. You begin to see that you are capable of more than you thought. You begin to see that stories don’t appear because you force them — they appear because you listen.

As always, if anything from this newsletter brings something up for you, you can reply to this email and I’ll write you back (as long as it’s before the deadline).

Until next time — keep listening, keep noticing, and keep trusting your creative self.

— Trevor