In Hindsight

As an artist, it’s always interesting to look back on your earlier work. Often it’s nostalgic. Sometimes it’s cringey. But either way, it feels good to see how far you’ve come and how much you’ve improved.

Sleep Therapy, Hard Things, And The Wrath Of Hell became the first Vocal story of many that I’d go on to write over the last 3 years, and sparked the beginning of a pastime I’d come to rely on throughout the pandemic.

I originally wrote this one for the Behind The Beat challenge in February 2020; the prompt was to write about a song that changed your life. I got to talk about 3 songs from 3 different genres, each that I consider life changing for different reasons. And man, did I have fun with it.

Despite some nerves and feeling like I had no idea what I was doing, I put a lot of passion into writing Sleep Therapy, Hard Things, And The Wrath Of Hell. (Having a music related prompt for my first story definitely helped!)

I originally gave it the title Behind The Beats, I guess to reflect the challenge I wrote it for. But I later went back and changed the title because I felt like it was cheesy and not original enough.

But overall, I was happy with how it turned out, and I still am now. I have other early stories that I wrote around the same time that I kind of cringe when I read them now. Compared to those, this one came together really well.

But I never imagined how much I’d end up I’d falling in love with writing and growing as a writer from there.

Since writing this piece, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my writing abilities. I still have the same overall writing process: randomly throw out ideas, see what sticks, and gradually connect each piece, kind of like I’m making a Jackson Pollock painting.

I also still use the same technique of breaking up my writing into smaller chunks, rather than having it all be one giant paragraph. It’s a great way for me to highlight important points of a story, and it also makes the story easier to read.

And my language as a writer is still very simple and to the point, as it’s always been. I’ve never felt the need to use a ton of fancy vocabulary just to make myself sound smart or creative. It reminds me of when I had to write papers in school and would purposely use a ton of extra words just to meet the word count (an experience I don’t care to relive).

But now I often find myself trying to strike a balance between maintaining that simplicity, while coming up with ways to verbalize my thoughts in a more captivating way.

Through everything, one of the number one compliments people give me about my writing is that my passion shines through. That’s a compliment I’m always grateful to receive. And my passion hasn’t wavered a bit. But I think my ability to articulate it has evolved beautifully.

Since writing Sleep Therapy, Hard Things, And The Wrath Of Hell, my confidence in my writing abilities has also grown. I’ve written several other pieces about music, including an album review.

I’ve written about recipes I like.

I’ve written personal essays.

I’ve written opinion pieces about works of literature.

I’ve even written poems and short fiction stories.

I never thought I was capable of writing anything outside of non-fiction, so branching out and trying other kinds of writing was huge for me. But I really surprised myself and came up with some great stuff, including 2 short fiction stories, 5 haikus, and 1 longer poem.

All this because I took a leap of faith and decided to try writing, and came up with Sleep Therapy, Hard Things, And The Wrath Of Hell. I’m still so grateful that I did.

Thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed this story, I’d appreciate it so much if you shared it and left a heart, a tip, and a pledge!