I became a writer by coincidence.

It is not my ambition to become a professional writer—as in, a dedicated and full-time novelist or poet or journalist.

I just like blogging and expressing my feelings and opinions every now and then, and I’m happy to see that a few hundred people, sometime a few thousand, actually take the time to read my ramblings.

The writing began with my personal blog, when I moved from Europe to Asia and started to post my adventures online to keep friends and family up-to-date on my new life. From there, my audience grew, but that’s the way I still write.

Even though my words are published by elephant journal and other media outlets that are viewed by many more readers than my former colleagues at the bank or my auntie in America, I write as if I’m talking to them.

I am not interested in exploding readership numbers, nor am I interested in world-wide fame.

I mostly write because, at a certain moment, I get a wave of inspiration. Something happens in front of my eyes—I read an article or I watch a video and I can link it back to my own experience, to my own views on this life. A title flashes in my mind or I visualise the perfect picture for a story that is still unshaped. If I then manage to find enough words to express myself decently, I submit the text for publishing.

No obligations, no pressure.

Occasionally, I write because I have a commitment or have been requested to. Then, even when I’m not inspired, I sit down and I try to find a thread of words that will hopefully lead to a great punch line or a happy ending. In the end, I always manage, probably because I don’t let the pressure of “having to write” shut me down.

When inspiration does knock on my door, I welcome it and embrace it. When there is no one whispering what to write in my ear, I accept that, too, and I puzzle the words together with my own limited skills.

I am just a writer, not a creative genius.

I am not the centre of the universe, but I am part of it and I am connected with it. As with synchronicity, if I look, listen and feel carefully, I will see, hear and receive what the rest of the universe has to tell me.

And if I catch the spirit at the right time, it will flow from my heart to my fingers through my quill keyboard into the cloud.

Is that what Elizabeth Gilbert is trying to say in this inspiring and entertaining TED talk?

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Author: Yaisa Nio

Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: Pixoto /  Erian Andre