Words as a Weapon and a Whisper: Challenging Narratives and Redefining My Story

TL;dr: From a straight-A academic who thought every word must be laden with profound meaning, to discovering the true power of writing as liberation and healing — I’ve navigated the expectations of excellence as a Black girl in America to find my voice. Through embracing my prismatic identity and shedding the weight of oppressive narratives, I’ve journeyed from writing as a survival tool to expressing myself with unapologetic softness and joy. This is a tale of transformation, from believing writing must always be important, to finding importance in simply being true to oneself.

Graphic with books forming a circular pattern in the background. Overlaid texts read ‘WORDS AS A WEAPON AND A WHISPER’ and ‘Challenging Narratives and Redefining My Story’ alongside icons of books with stars. An inkwell and quill on parchment are in the corner.

You’re an…Okay Writer

It’s true. I’m an okay writer. Actually, I’m a great writer. Well, I’m an okay writer who thinks they’re a great writer. And that’s good enough. For now.

But on the path to this discovery, I learned that writing, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. As a child, I don’t think I knew that. I read, voraciously. But I also wrote, passionately. If I read something, my brain immediately wanted to recreate it. And usually, with the aplomb of a child, I could figure out the structure and copy it. We’re talking elementary, middle grade stuff here, folks: Mildred D. Taylor, R.L. Stine, Lois Duncan, Roald Dahl, and the like. Not that I was penning Goosebumps stories or anything. But I was becoming fascinated with the idea of transporting folks to imagined places that had no limits than the ones I dreamt. As a Black kid in 90s America (South LA, to be more precise), it was in reading and writing that I found my way out of childhood abuse, family and community violence, family who’d been incarcerated, and oppressive narratives that told me I couldn’t reach beyond my social location.

This brought on so much weight that fantasy, horror, and science fiction became healthy escapes. Sharpening my skills in developing my own takes on stories I felt could’ve been done better (okay, yes, I wrote fan fiction; and it was awesome) or creating one shot original stories helped give voice to a girl who wasn’t heard often.

Writing for Your Actual Life

But, writing for pleasure, or even as a career, wasn’t the model Black girls in my area (y’all call it…