Why I Write, Why Peterson and Hopkins Wrote, And Why You Should Write, Too.

A message to the writers in the room.

The old journal and the poem hidden in it.

Still, we keep writing; why?

I’ve been writing professionally for almost a decade now. I’ve written two books under my own name, co-written or edited over forty books, and I’ve coached scores of authors in the writing process. I write and help others write because I believe in the power of words. I believe words help us make meaning.

In 2020, I had the good fortune of watching a book I worked on—one dealing with rather weighty themes—rise to the ranks of the New York Times bestsellers list. After the announcement, the publisher reached out via email to share the news. In that email, she wrote, “this is why we do what we do; words still have the power to change the world.” I believe that more today than ever.

But this begs the question: What about the words that never reach The World? What about the journal entries, poems, stray chapters never finished, manuscripts completed but never published? What about the billions of hidden words stored on millions of hard drives around the globe? Where’s the power in those words?