Writing about something, even if you know it well, often reveals gaps in your understanding. Putting ideas into words is a severe test. The initial words chosen are usually wrong, requiring multiple rewrites. Your ideas will not only be imprecise but incomplete. Half of the ideas in an essay emerge during the writing process. Once published, it seems those were your original thoughts, but the act of writing changes them.
Why write an essay when you can type a few words and have AI generate one for you? Why write an email when AI can auto-respond for you with all the typical pleasantries and talking points? While AI doing these things for you is likely to happen, it’s not necessarily a good thing. Even when these tools exist, they are not a replacement for writing. Writing is the process by which you realize that you do not understand what you are talking about. Importantly, writing is also the process by which you figure it out. Writing about something teaches you about what you know, what you don’t know, and how to think. Writing about something is one of the best ways to learn about it. Writing is not just a vehicle to share ideas with others but also a way to understand them better yourself.
As a writer, my life took an unexpected turn when my memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love," became an international sensation. This success brought with it a peculiar kind of doom, as people now question whether I will ever surpass that achievement. I've faced similar fears before, when I first aspired to be a writer. The fear of failure, rejection, and the notion that my entire career could result in nothing haunted me.