Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Write What You Know

The oft' given writing advice is to write what you know.  I always feel like I've been cheated out of actual advice when I hear that.  I don't know what I know.  At least not what I know that would be worth writing about.  Rock climbing, Nancy Drew, list making.  I can write about these for a little while, but then I'm not sure where to go with them, and they're certainly not quite fiction material.

People I'm around talk a lot about stories.  How we live our life, tell our life, and learn new things through stories.  I wholeheartedly agree.  Half the reason I remember so much about architecture is because it was told to me as a story.  But when I'm in charge of the story?

It's probably terribly bad form to put what I'm about to say on the internet where future employers can find it, but I feel like part of learning and growing in my writing is admitting what I'm not good at and then trying to find a solution.  I'm terrible at creating my own plots.  I think up wonderful concepts to tell a story in, but when I sit down to write I get stuck because the characters aren't doing anything.

I can find my way out of a plot line any day of the week.  Especially in SciFi or fantasy.  Bring on the twists and I will think of a way to maneuver around them.  I love shows like Once Upon A Time and Fringe because they give me the plot and then they leave me hanging to try and figure out what I want to happen.  And I figure out a way I think the story is going to go.  The next week they show me what their solution is (Sometimes I like my solution better).

Finding plots is something I'm trying to work on.  I want to be better at this, but for now I have trouble with plot.

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