Try This Next Time You Write (or Think You Are)
An exercise in getting out of your own way.
Let’s try something odd.
Sit down to write, anything. A sentence, a title, your own name.
Then, halfway through the sentence, stop.
Not dramatically. Just freeze your fingers, like the keyboard suddenly turned to ice and you’re not sure it’ll hold your weight.
Now, without thinking too much about it, finish the sentence.
But this time, use only one hand.
If you usually type with two, pick one, any one. If you’re writing by hand, switch to the other one. Left if you're right-handed. Right if you're left-handed.
Do it slow. Let it wobble. Let it feel like your first day as a human.
Now, watch what happens. The sentence might turn awkward and lose the plot, or gain one. It’s not about the words but what shows up when you stop showing up.
That familiar hum of “I know what I’m doing” vanishes. And what’s left is…strange. Raw, sometimes brilliant. Sometimes nonsense. But always different.
Like something else wrote it. Which is kind of the point. Because maybe something did. Maybe it always does. And maybe the hand you think is writing is just the one holding the pen.
(Feel free to blame the left one next time you write something weird.)
