Anaïs Nin: Writing as a way to find meaning

The feminist diarist found wisdom by going deep within

Welcome to the first Sunday Literary Ladies Lite edition of the New Year! When I stop to think about it, celebrating a New Year happens around the coldest, shortest, darkest days of the year is quite odd. But there it is, and since there’s nothing to do to change the calendar, like millions of others I find myself musing on how to make the year ahead more meaningful, productive, and interesting.

Writing isn’t just the domain of professional journalists, published authors, bloggers, etc., whose work sees the light of publication. Writing is for everyone, and it truly is a path to self-knowledge, even if no one ever sees what you’ve written.

(Did you know that if you hit the heart at the bottom or the top of this post, it helps others discover my publication on Substack? Thank you!)

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) embodied the practice of writing as a grand passion and a path to delving deeply into the self. In this sense she foreshadowed the immediacy of today’s world of self-revelatory memoir and blogging.

Best known for her multi-volume Diary of Anaïs Nin, which became a touchstone of feminist thought. She also broke ground as a writer of female erotica, and was a splendid essayist as well. For Nin, writing was as necessary as breathing. She started journaling in 1921 while still in her teens, and continued the practice nearly throughout her writing life.

Of course, as her famous Diary series progressed, she became aware that she was writing not only for an audience, but for posterity. Still, her raw, honest diaries resonated with millions of women who felt she had awakened something in them. Here are some of the responses she got from readers:

“The Diaries wakened me, made me relive my life, enjoy it, find new aspects to dream about; you gave me a second life.”

“My world is richer because you have given me yours.”

“You taught me to be a woman of tenderness, affection and independence.”

“Your writings, your honesty, helped me accept myself as a person, a woman, an artist.”

Following are some of Anaïs Nin’s thoughts on writing. Not how to write, nor how to get published (there’s plenty of that here on Substack ;-) This is more of the why of writing, and how it can connect us to the truer part of ourselves. After re-reading her thoughts, I realized that I might do well to revise my New Year’s goals and aspirations — make them deeper and more meaningful and less like a laundry list.

I hope some of these will resonate with you as you ponder the year ahead …