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Over the past 18 months Stephanie Dale, the creator of The Write Road, has driven 40,000kms to deliver 150 writing workshops. She writes about the need we have to create, and how her online course is designed to help people find their writing ‘voice’…

I have spent months at a time crisscrossing mountains, plains and rivers, then barreling on through the red dust of far west NSW, meeting people in wooden halls, on remote stations, beside waterholes, inside community centres.

In stalking the writing potential of the people of NSW, a handful of heartbreaking common themes emerged:

almost every single person around us longs to tell a story
almost every single one of us believes that to take time out to do so would be ‘wasting time’
just about everyone believes they are ‘unworthy’ of making a start on their stories (even small family stories)
just about everyone believes they are ‘not talented enough’ to try.

By far the most common reason for why people are not writing is a debilitating inner dialogue about ‘wasting time’.

It’s a crazy story. A silly story. A shameful story. We all play our part in it – and we’re paying a high price for it.

The nation is facing a mental health meltdown. Rates of suicide and depression are so alarmingly high that mental health is a growth industry, and we tell ourselves – and each other – that we do not have time to do the one thing we’d love to do more than anything else: write.

To be well, for families and communities to thrive, we must create. We all know this is more than theory; the connection between creativity and wellbeing is well-documented.

And yet we have ‘no time’ to laze beneath a tree in the midday heat and – write. No time to sit on the steps while the sun goes down – and write. No time to wander out on the headland, lie back in the morning sunshine – and write.

Surely, everyone is entitled to sit on their verandah while the sun goes down with a book on their lap and a pen between their fingers, clarifying thoughts, exploring ideas, telling stories.

And herein lies the revolution.

It takes courage to override the voices in our head shaming us with all the reasons why we cannot, should not, must not write the stories hammering at our heart.

It takes a radical act of self-belief to claim our voice and our visibility. It takes a personal revolution to place a value on the longing to write so high that we are no longer willing to sacrifice our right to write on the altar of ‘wasting time’. And it takes a funny sort of confidence to write not because you’re going to be brilliant, not because it may or may not be worth publishing, not because other people might love or hate our story – but because the longing itself is enough.

In a radical act of civil disobedience, our task today (and tomorrow) is to waste time. To sit ‘idle’ during a busy day. Give the gift of wasting time to ourselves and set a fine example to others. Take time to connect with your deepest well: sit, dream, rest.

From there, who knows, you may just pick up that pen.