I’ve spent years studying books on writing and story structure but lately I’ve started realizing my biggest issue isn’t technical anymore. It’s avoidance. There are certain emotional truths I keep softening on the page because I’m worried about sounding too exposed or too honest. The section about writers overexplaining because ambiguity feels unsafe genuinely stopped me for a minute. I could see myself in that immediately. Thank you for sharing this Idris Elijah, I always enjoy the content about writing!
This explains why some songs wreck you emotionally with barely any lyrics. A few nights ago I was working on a song around 1am and realized the version with fewer vocal layers and more silence actually hit harder. I kept wanting to explain the emotion too much in the lyrics instead of letting the chords and pauses carry some of it. The part about implication vs overexplaining really got me thinking differently about songwriting. Thank you Idris Elijah for the thoughtful and quality read today!
The line about writers wanting emotionally complex stories while protecting themselves from emotional complexity really stayed with me. I’ve started noticing how often people hide behind technique because it feels safer than honesty. Even outside writing, this made me think differently about creativity in general. You can feel when something comes from real observation versus assembled ideas. Thank you Idris for providing us with so much content that inspires us to do better in our creative lives!
I’ve spent years studying books on writing and story structure but lately I’ve started realizing my biggest issue isn’t technical anymore. It’s avoidance. There are certain emotional truths I keep softening on the page because I’m worried about sounding too exposed or too honest. The section about writers overexplaining because ambiguity feels unsafe genuinely stopped me for a minute. I could see myself in that immediately. Thank you for sharing this Idris Elijah, I always enjoy the content about writing!
This explains why some songs wreck you emotionally with barely any lyrics. A few nights ago I was working on a song around 1am and realized the version with fewer vocal layers and more silence actually hit harder. I kept wanting to explain the emotion too much in the lyrics instead of letting the chords and pauses carry some of it. The part about implication vs overexplaining really got me thinking differently about songwriting. Thank you Idris Elijah for the thoughtful and quality read today!
The line about writers wanting emotionally complex stories while protecting themselves from emotional complexity really stayed with me. I’ve started noticing how often people hide behind technique because it feels safer than honesty. Even outside writing, this made me think differently about creativity in general. You can feel when something comes from real observation versus assembled ideas. Thank you Idris for providing us with so much content that inspires us to do better in our creative lives!