People often ask me what it feels like to shift careers from law to writing. Not to be dramatic, but it saved my life. Listen, creative people often have difficulty finding ourselves because the world doesn't know what to do with us. Thread (1/6)

The world has a general plan for all of us. Go make money, which usually means a service job. If you enter a profession, people think that you made it. Even if that profession means you're not following your passion. Even if going in the wrong direction means you're dying. (2/6)

The pain that stifling creativity causes is not something non creative people seem to understand. It's inchoate and rarely depicted in film or TV. It doesn't help that highly creative people have a higher prevalence of mental health issues. Not using your gift makes it . (3/6)

It also doesn't help that you can make easier money in virtually any profession. Any lawyer, doctor, architect, contractor, etc. will make a ransom in comparison to your average prose writer let alone those literally poor poets. (Love you, poets!) But there's the rub. (4/6)

Being creative means you have to make all the things in your head. It's more than obsession. It is breath. When you're not making, you're suffocating. There's an alarm in the back of your mind that is ringing every second you're not writing. Many spend their lives this way. (5/6)

So what can I say about the career change? Back then, I was drowning, only occasionally coming up for air. Now, that alarm is mostly quiet and I fly most every day. I hope that each of you get to make what's in your head. I love to see it. (End)