Write what you know.
Most books of advice for writers say this sooner or later. It seems logical, doesn't it?
But what does it mean?
What do you know?
I like to ask writers, both successful and struggling, to tell me what they know and feel confident writing about.
Of course the common answer is: "It depends...."
Bear with me. This is actually a helpful answer.
Depends on what?
Their answers again: It depends on how much passion I feel about a subject, how closely I feel aligned with a subject, how much time and effort I want to invest in knowing a subject well enough to write about it honestly and persuasively.
So you don't have to be a woman to write about women persuasively. Think Madame Bovary.
You
don't have to know everything about a topic to take it on. You learn
by doing, deepening your knowledge as you grapple, think, even dream
about it. These activities should excite you and make you want to know
more.
If they don't, what are your choices? That depends (that word again!) on the reasons you are stuck.
Some inner reflection about this helps.
For instance, you may feel frustrated because you need to find better sources of information. Go for it!
Or you may be weak in certain skills (statistics come to mind as a common problem) and need to decide how and where to get them--more training, a statistician in your back pocket, etc.
Or the subject just doesn't come together, no matter how much you try. One writer I work with had that happen. Finally, after much agonizing, he decided to jettison a book he had invested quite a bit of time in. Once he did that, he was surprised to learn two crucial things:
1. how very much he had NOT had a strong belief in the viability of his topic in the first place and how relieved he was to give it up;
2. how, almost immediately, a much better topic suggested itself to him, filling him with new energy.
Now he is off and running with that.
So all is not lost when you get stuck. Stop and get some input from the outside, if you can't see what's wrong immediately by yourself. Don't waste time and suffer needless pain. Keep an open mind when someone offers an analysis or suggestion that is hard for you to accept--because once you pinpoint the problem, solutions will pop up much more easily.
Comments