I am a fan of The Marginalian newsletter/website, aka Maria Popova. She is insanely well-read and looks at humanity through the lens of many classic creatives. Recently she wrote on normalcy. . . and its affiliation with rejection, or in the case of those frequently rejected and distraught, breakdown. https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/13/alain-de-botton-normalcy-breakdown/

The world comes at us with pressure to be normal. Be unique….but keep it between the lines or you, as a writer, risk being cancelled, chastised, or review bombed. More than ever, people not only think they have a voice, but they believe it has to be heard. . . and heard loud. We are fearful of being the object of that obnoxious noise.

The result being we often reign in our attempt to be a unique creative for fear we are too unique and, therefore, too subject to public embarrassment. We are afraid that the loud, dynamic, mouthy reviewers who get off on tearing into why they didn’t like a book will target us.

Being unique draws attention, and it can can make you or break you. (When Goodreads reviews go bad https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/17/god-forbid-that-a-dog-should-die-when-goodreads-reviews-go-bad)

So when I read Maria’s latest Marginalian post, I had to bring it forward to you. She wrote of Alain de Botton’s coverage of emotional health. He is  a Swiss-born British author and public speaker who made his success with books on relationships. One of his quotes being this:

Any idea of the normal currently in circulation is not an accurate map of what is customary for a human to be. We are — each one of us — far more compulsive, anxious, sexual, tender, mean, generous, playful, thoughtful, dazed, and at sea than we are encouraged to accept.

None of us is normal. Frankly, there is no normal. We are each unique. Inside we are far more insightful than we come forward and admit. Truthfully, that individuality we possess is what we are afraid to tap for fear we are considered weird.

Dare to write the weird, the unique, the odd way you view the world. Then edit it. Not edit it to make it more normal. Edit it to polish it such that it is so beautiful that even the so-called normal people see it as something special.

But tap that unique in your first draft. Give it breath and see where it goes.