Write Angry

Something happened yesterday that royally pissed me off. During an away game one of our soccer players fell to the ground injured. Immediately the parents for the opposing team launched an aggressive attack against the ref and his “poor” call after giving us a free kick. Their screaming escalated and was, in my opinion, beyond classless. Our player lie writhing in pain only feet from these parents and they had the audacity to spew about what they believed was an unfair call. Let me shed a little more light on the situation. The ref had made a few questionable calls during the game so far—this was not one of them. Also, the injury didn’t occur during a breakaway. And our player has to get an X-ray for what could be broken fingers.

I seriously kept thinking is this how it’s going to be—the world my kids are going to live in? I think this a lot and it tends to freak me out. I have to mollify myself with the whole be the change self-talk. I maintained self-control and I’m proud of that because every muscle in my body was ordering me to go off on those parents. Instead I took a little walk and breathed.

You could say I was just a tad angry. Rightfully so.

There are plenty of times in life we should be angry. It’s the most appropriate response to injustices we see around us. Someone once told me the things that trigger the most anger in us are signposts, informing us of the issues where we’re most impassioned and positioned to respond—to inflict change.

Here’s where the writing part comes in. I understand the argument for writing sound, for dealing with your emotions before you tap out the first word so your work will be coherent and well-punctuated.

Hogwash.

I say write hot. Three reasons why I stand by this . . .

Passion

When you write angry your passion will be evident in your words—it will seep into every sentence. People will feel that passion and latch onto it. It’ll create emotion in others. Your anger will present people with a choice. Your work will hold up a sign that says I care about this. Will you?

The Geyser Inside

Sometimes you don’t know how strongly you feel about a subject until you begin exploring your feelings on the page. Writing is an optimal way to unleash these untapped emotions. It’s incredible what your impassioned indignation may look like when it’s finally free to spread out and find a home on the page. No matter what it looks like, I guarantee it will demand attention. It also has the potential to introduce you to an assortment of other things you had no idea you were feeling. Hello, geyser inside.

Connection

I didn’t know the parents from my team were bothered by the embarrassing actions of the parents from the other team until I took my little calming walk. It’s then that I heard the comments. Guess what? They were fuming mad too. It’s exactly for this reason that writing hot is important. When you write angry you have the potential to create powerful empathy. You motivate others to care and move to action. You connect with readers.

*All this to say I’ve noticed people seem to get angry at the slightest things anymore. Then they spew like crazy with little self-control. Let’s get angry when anger is merited. Then, let’s follow Toni Morrison’s example. “I get angry about things, then go on and work.”