Making art about your own feelings isn’t self-centered. It’s how strangers find out they aren’t alone.

Private feeling turns out to be mostly common property. The thing you were sure was only yours is the thing someone else recognises instantly, because the specific carries across and the general does not. Writing about yourself is less an act of self-interest than a message left where someone might find it.

Make one thing this week about something you have never said out loud, and include the detail you would normally leave out. You do not have to show it to anyone yet. If you do show it, notice who goes quiet, because that is usually the person it reached.