War. Terrorism. Mass shootings. Economic collapse. Natural disasters. Political idiocy. Pokémon Go.
Welcome to hell on earth.
The good news is, things are terrible everywhere, thus we humans can enjoy a sense of global unity. The bad news is, that sense of unity is growing stronger everyday.
In other words, shit’s getting ridiculous. That said, we have to try to make the most of the world crumbling. Personally, I use it to punish my teenage daughter. Whenever she misbehaves or blows off her homework, I no longer ground her; I just make her listen to the news.
Another thing I do to make the most of a crumbling world is write.
And so should you.
Writing – particularly writing fiction – is one of the best ways to raise a middle finger to reality, to rail against the chaos, to control the uncontrollable. To flip the script. To remain sane inside the loony bin.
Not happy about all the horrible things happening in the world around you? Create your OWN world. Use your imagination to rip a hole through apathy, angst and hopelessness. Or, if you aren’t up for creating new worlds, then just write about how you feel about planet Earth going to hell in a hand-basket. This can be very freeing.
“But Greg, I’m not a very good writer.”
That doesn’t matter! Most writers aren’t very good writers. Just write. You needn’t pen (or type) perfect prose or poetry. Simply take what’s burning you up inside, what’s tearing you limb from limb, and kick its ass with whatever words come to you. Forget about who might read it; in fact, don’t even worry about showing it to another living soul. After all, I’m not talking about you trying to land a multi-book deal with Harper Collins or Penguin Random House. (If you DO land such a deal, please put in a good word for me.) I’m simply talking about expressing yourself via the very liberating and powerful written word. Hell, you can even use emojis if you must. No judgment.
There are a lot of terrifying things to be frightened of. Writing should NOT be one of them. We cannot let all of the daily horrors destroy our spirit or send us into panic mode.
There’s no need to run for your life. WRITE for it instead.
Want to see how I use fiction to channel my fury and stay out of prison? Check out my latest novel, Sick to Death.
ON HIS BEST DAYS, ZERO SLADE IS THE WORST MAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. HE HAS TO BE. IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE LOST GIRLS.