“I Don’t Know” Is the Most Powerful Statement in Writing

What I learned from writing in 2020

Assumpta Nalubowa
4 min readNov 15, 2020
Photo by Nadir sYzYgY on Unsplash

At the beginning of 2020, I decided to become a writer. It was more a move of necessity than a hobby. I had to write. I needed to write. My mind was repeatedly buzzing on and on about what would and what wouldn’t make for good article ideas. For a while, I had successfully ignored it. I figured the impulse to write would eventually quietly fade away due to neglect.

It did not.

Instead, it became louder and louder. So, here we are, and this, below, is what I’ve learned from writing thus far.

The creative path is not for the faint of heart

I have learned that the creative path is not for the faint of heart. To choose a career in the creative arts is to entrust your employment, your survival, to an acute infinite abyss of knowing nothing.

I have learned that even when you have researched your story thoroughly, to write the perfect words, to put your research into the most creative sequence of letters and sentences, you have to accept that you know nothing.

Allow me to explain

To be creative is to continuously and repeatedly let go of everything you know. It is to accept…

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Assumpta Nalubowa

Personal Essayist | Web Technical Writer who is open to work | For my technical writing, check out: https://sumpycode.hashnode.dev/