What’s your story? That’s what I wonder each time I meet with a new client. Every person is so special. They are a manifestation of all the memories and dreams which bring them into the present moment. Behind each human being there exists an infinite ocean of meaning and memory.

There is a line in a Kris Kristofferson song called “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”. The singer wakes up in the morning with someone he loves. She’s “wiping out the traces of the people and the places that I’ve been.” That line sticks with me. It’s such a thorough and exact description of what we carry around with us. It reveals how much we need other people to help us understand ourselves. The people and places that I’ve been. When I meet someone new I know not what they carry. Because I am another person, with my own set of factors, I am able to notice and appreciate theirs. This is what I am doing when I help people create writing.

The process of bringing someone out into language is oft times very emotional. Those worlds of memory have been diligently stowed away. A personality has been formed. Certain narratives are fixed but are seldom spoken aloud. As a fellow human being, I am uniquely qualified to help draw those words out of another. My skill is to organize them on the page.

There is a practical result- the piece of writing. There is a spiritual result- the experience of being seen and known. There is an emotional result- the feeling of transformative clarity which comes from putting amorphous impressions into language.

Artificial intelligence is a human creation, but it lacks a human heart. Artificial intelligence is a too for writing indeed. It’s best used for generating words which don’t specifically require human touch. The experience of personal change is writing. To truly know oneself through the writing practice is the real gift of the art form.

I love to see my clients moved and transformed as we work together on a project. As we organize their memories and beliefs into an admissions essay, a CV, a work of fiction, a statement of purpose, a band bio, a press release, or a screenplay, peace comes over them. Their relief is palpable. I’ve helped people write all of these things. The fruit of the experience for me is seeing the weight come off someone’s shoulders. There is freedom and release when the right words meet the page. Memory makes way for alchemy. Stagnant ideas become river flows. The writer is refreshed in the cool water of word.

Photographs from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photographs Collection, Library of Congress. View here.