love
death
marriage
truth
beauty
depression
illness
good
evil
fate
religion
regret
parenthood
addiction
sex
trauma
coping…
All of my stories so far have been stupidly over-ambitious.
Actually, “ambitious” might not be the right word. More like “naive”. I’m 24. I’m single, I grew up in the suburbs, I don’t do drugs and I barely even drink coffee. Yet I continue to write about marriage, drug use, death, life, art — huge overarching things about which I probably have nothing insightful to say.
I had a friend of a friend die of a drug overdose, and the situation inspired me to write a story. So I started that project, and I sort of liked what I had so far… until I asked my friend (the alive one) what he did when this friend died. I was way off. Anyone who actually knew anything about death and drugs would have probably scoffed.
While I don’t necessarily believe in the adage of “write what you know”, I should probably stick to “don’t write what everybody BUT you knows”.
Another time, I had made a character pregnant on a whim. When I shared my story in workshop, everyone (especially the women) latched on the that afterthought baby, tried to make the story about motherhood, her feelings on motherhood and how the woman’s impending motherhood played a role in the plot of the story. Were my workshop-mates missing the point? No, I was being naive about the volumes of implications my character’s pregnancy brought. I had taken on something bigger than I could handle.
The fact is, there is NOTHING wrong with writing about something so common and ordinary that everyone can relate to it. There have been many wonderful pieces of fiction about someone taking a walk in the park, eating dinner alone, or freaking out about prom. It doesn’t have to be some lofty, grand subject to be a good story. In fact, I’m starting to wonder if such subject matter is too obvious and maybe a little silly.
Silly for me, anyway. Of course, many more skilled authors than myself have successfully tackled these subjects. But I am not there yet. I need to set myself up for a successful story.
So, without further ado, my list of subjects that I’m not allowed to write about. Maybe you’d like to take a look at it as well, if you’re having a similar struggle.
