MSM ADVICE COLUMN: 9/14/25

Welcome to the Main Street Magazine Advice Column! We’re so excited to have you. We’ve been wanting to start a classic advice column here at MSM for a bit now — and we feel like we finally have the perfect question to usher in this new era of our blog. We plan on this being the first of many super-cool online exclusives for Main Street Mag coming this semester, so keep an eye out! We plan on releasing these columns pretty often, so keep the questions coming.

Without further adieu, here’s our first ask!

Oracle, how can I put meaning into my writing? Everything that comes out feels soulless and childish. How do I give my writing a soul?

This is such a great question, and feels like a perfect way to start out the MSM advice column. I think this is something every writer has struggled with, to an extent – feeling disconnected or unhappy with the results of our creative efforts. Something I noticed in this question is that you described your writing as “soulless and childish”. I find these descriptors to be complete opposites in a lot of ways! There is nothing more meaningful than working towards authenticity. I think that for a lot of artists, this feeling can come from limiting yourself out of embarrassment or fear. Don’t feel pressure to inject artificial meaning into your work so that it feels more mature. Instead, write towards the meaning. Find it yourself. If you start small – writing about what’s close to you and what you care about – eventually the themes, patterns, and voice of your writing will start to take shape. Everybody starts somewhere, and we are in such a transitional phase in our lives as young people that it makes sense if you don’t feel concrete in your work yet. The most important part is to keep going. Keep writing, keep reading, keep living – gather your meaning that way and the rest will come.