The older I get, the more a particular piece of advice begins to resonate with me. It\u2019s that well-worn writing chestnut: \u201cWrite what you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
I honestly have no idea who first said this, and I don\u2019t have a clue as to the context in which it\u2019s meant to be taken. All I can tell you is what it means to me, or what it has come to mean to me, which is maybe the same thing but still feels a little different in my mind.<\/p>\n
Whenever I hear \u201cwrite what you know,\u201d I immediately think open your diary. Not that I have such a book. Nor is its cover adorned with winged unicorns. And no, it doesn\u2019t feature a gold-filigreed lock that responds to a single key which I wear around my neck night and day. That would be ridiculous, and I am a serious sort of man. Seriously!<\/p>\n
Getting back to the point, opening your diary means putting yourself in your stories. It doesn\u2019t matter what genre you write or when and where your story is set, you\u2019re going to be dealing with characters and situations about which you have an opinion. What better place to tell people what you think.<\/p>\n
Inevitably there will be a part of you in every story you tell, but what I\u2019m saying is make it a conscious decision. No more holding back. I can\u2019t tell you the number of times I\u2019ve written something and have thought to myself, \u201cOh, God. I know my mom\u2019s going to read this. I can\u2019t wait for that phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the very next instant, I say \u201cFuck it!\u201d Because it\u2019s not her story, it\u2019s mine, and she\u2019s not the one who has to tell it. I do. So I\u2019m doing it my way, and I want it to be authentic.<\/p>\n
Opening your diary means more than just giving your opinions though. It also means working out your feelings about things, and putting it on paper for the rest of the world to read. It\u2019s a kind of less-expensive psychotherapy, but more people get to listen in. It\u2019s not just your analyst anymore.\u00a0 Oh, and her dinner-party friends when she plays the recordings she swears she\u2019s not making. Them too. But you don\u2019t have to worry about that anymore. You\u2019re expanding your audience. Take that doctor-client privilege!<\/p>\n
I encourage you to take the things that bother you, take those things that are most private and awful in your life, and drag them into the light of day. Put them in a novel or a short story or a piece of flash fiction, and use that process to clear the air a bit. Write about your spouse, your kids, your significant other, and especially mine that valuable vein called family. Lord knows we\u2019re probably all screwed up in that department.\u00a0 Now\u2019s your chance to take all those childhood memories and turn them into fiction.<\/p>\n
Now before you rush off to write your biography, only set on Mars because that\u2019s totally different, here\u2019s a word of caution. Don\u2019t replicate the people from your life and just drop them, unchanged, into your stories. You can\u2019t do that. You\u2019ll just be looking for trouble. I don\u2019t say this to protect them. I\u2019m trying to help you cover your own ass.<\/p>\n
Start by thinking about this person from your family who will be, in my assumption, an antagonist of some sort. Take the things about them that really annoy you, those traits that make you want to put them on a short list of people to punch in the throat, and build from there. Give this \u201ccharacter\u201d a different backstory. Keep the annoying stuff, but add in some characterization that also differs from the antagonist\u2019s real-life doppelganger. Develop this character until you\u2019re pretty confident that other people probably wouldn\u2019t recognize who you\u2019re talking about even though you have a clear target for your animosity.<\/p>\n
Now you get to have some fun. Funnel yourself into the protagonist. Have him or her say the things that you\u2019re too polite to say. Be bold in your fiction. Make the choices you don\u2019t in real life. Take your revenge. Speak your mind. Give the antagonist what they deserve. What has, in your opinion, been a long time coming.<\/p>\n
Write it all out. And when you\u2019re done, sit back. Relax. Light up a cigarette, or however it is you choose to celebrate such moments. Bask in the glow of a scene well-written and the courage it took to battle such demons.<\/p>\n
Then, if you\u2019re lucky enough to make cash off that effort, you can consider it money well earned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The older I get, the more a particular piece of advice begins to resonate with me. It\u2019s that well-worn writing chestnut: \u201cWrite what you know.\u201d I honestly have no idea who first said this, and I don\u2019t have a clue as to the context in which it\u2019s meant to be taken. All I can tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[173,283,983,1069,1271,1277],"class_list":["post-4145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-influence","tag-characterization","tag-diary","tag-secrets","tag-story-ideas","tag-write-what-you-know","tag-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}