I am grateful that Taylor Swift seems to have reckoned with the very real limits of writing exclusively about your own life and has instead taken inspiration from other sources of fiction, i think the songs are better and it's emotionally healthier for the writer

A mistake a lot of young writers (like myself) make is to repeatedly (in metaphor or reality) prick our own wounds and let the blood write the words for us

It's not sustainable to write from your own pain, because eventually you'll bleed out.

It's also not really possible to write coherently or well from a place of pain. Like imagine a talented person trying to write while experiencing a gunshot wound. You'll get something, alright, but it's all they can produce under extreme conditions. It could be even better.

I've banged on a lot about the myth of the tortured artist being harmful, because oftentimes artists allow abuse and hurt to continue in their lives. They are afraid to part with it because they fear that with it will fly their inspiration. I'm here to say it won't.