What To Write About

This question, like “how do I create an original plot?” is disarmingly easy. When you start writing, you spend a lot of time imitating authors and stories you like, which is fine. My first six or seven stories all sounded like Stephen King.

You want to write a certain kind of story. The desire to write outweighs everything else, so you just write. This ought to cheer you up: there's no such thing as bad writing. It's good practice, and it's the best way to learn.

You may not write anything publishable for awhile, but that's okay. Be patient with yourself. These skills take time to develop. Doctors go to school for a minimum of eight years before they begin a practice. Expect a pretty long – but very rich and rewarding – internship.

So here you are, blank page in front of you. Your mind is empty. Maybe you've made a deal with yourself to write a thousand words a day, but now that you're here, there are no words in your head. Maybe you're just burning to create – something, anything – but nothing's coming to mind.

So what do you write about?

This should be your maxim. Write it on an index card and tape it to the wall over your writing space, so you can see it while you're working. As I said, it's surprisingly simple:

Find the most powerful experience in your life and write about it.

If you do this, it will solve so many problems, not the least of which is versimillitude, which is a fancy word that means the story feels real. It's authentic.

If your mind is empty when you come to the page and you write a ten-page rehash of what you saw on The O.C. Last night, it's going to seem fake (unless you actually live in Orange County). But if you take the plot, or part of the plot, and apply it to what happened to you yesterday at school, work or home, your writing will have versimillitude because you're writing about yourself, your life, your friends.

There is drama going on in your life. Explore it. Let's face it – most of us pursue art because we don't understand something in our lives, and we're trying to figure it out.

That doesn't mean you have to write about your homeroom teacher or your day at the office. You can write a shoot-'em-up space opera filled with homicidal, gun-toting lizard men and still ask questions about whether or not God is real, or why nobody understands you.

The center of the story is you – your perspective, your life, your thoughts and ideas. It's the source of your originality. It's where your story lives.

So – what's your story?

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