Personal Reflection
It sounds empowering. Motivational even.
See a gap. Fill it.
But Morrison wasn’t talking about ambition. She was talking about necessity.
If the story doesn’t exist, maybe it’s because the voice required to tell it hasn’t stepped forward yet.
We spend a lot of time waiting.
Waiting for permission.
Waiting for clarity.
Waiting for someone else to articulate what we feel.
But absence isn’t neutral.
When certain stories aren’t told, certain lives remain unseen. Certain struggles remain unnamed.
And sometimes the frustration we feel reading — that subtle irritation that something is missing — is a signal.
Not that someone else failed.
But that we are being called.
The hard part isn’t writing the book.
It’s accepting that it’s yours to write.
Maybe the reason a story won’t leave you alone is because it doesn’t belong to anyone else.
Maybe the silence around it isn’t oversight.
It’s invitation.
Reflective Prompt
What story keeps returning to you — and what would change if you stopped waiting and began?
Memoirs of Madness 