This is a common lament that I’ve heard from many new writers when they hear the expression “Write what you know”. Here’s a fact, most people don’t live interesting lives as far as the masses are concerned. If you are breathing then you have something to write about from your own life though. You are only using “the things you know” as a springboard for your imagination. Your ideas can come from even the most mundane tasks… even the incredibly boring stuff.
I hate housework (just ask my husband). There is nothing exciting or tantalizing about dusting, but imagine this — you are diligently wiping the dust and fingerprints off of the glass coffee table and inexplicably the fingerprints are reappearing, new ones, and there is no one there to own up to it… or is there? Just use your imagination and what a story you could have. Here’s another one: You are doing laundry and your shirt has a difficult stain on it, but imagine this — the stain is evidence of a crime and you really have to wash it out or you could be facing prison time, or worse. Use your imagination and play “what if” about any UN-interesting event and you could create a very interesting story.
Fiction is simply made up bits and pieces of random life events. I recently told someone, start with just a “handful” of something real and let it go from there. Try writing about the day you had yesterday, but be sure to change something significant, maybe you weren’t at your desk when the phone rang and it was your boss asking you to bring in an important file, maybe he would have gotten angry, maybe he would have fired you. Think of all of the possibilities, just like drawing a flow chart, and when some possibility intrigues you, follow it. The last time you read a good story, did you ever think, “wow, if only he had done…”? Rewrite a chapter following that possibility and you’ll see how easily you can write a very different story.
Still don’t think you can create a story? Here are some things you can do: People watch from a distance and choose any two or more people engaged in conversation; write a possible dialogue based merely on physical gestures, clothing, facial expressions (remember to do this from a distance); Next time you check your mailbox take your junk mail seriously, respond to it (in writing), write a scenario where you hire the service, visit the store or buy the product — remember to play “what if” along the way, think of something that could go wrong with the deal and keep writing; or how about imagining the life that someone you lost touch with from high school has had. Fiction is based on life but it doesn’t have to be confined by that life.
Writing Exercise: Choose a regular and boring task you normally do. Think about each step, maybe there are things you don’t even notice. Start asking “what if”, what if it wasn’t the shampoo bottle you took into the shower, what if your car wouldn’t start when you had to handle that errand, what if you accidentally punched in an extra zero on the bank deposit slip and it was accepted… Set a timer and write for at least 30-minutes while you throw in a bunch of “what ifs”.
Writing Prompt: Make a list of ten events in your life where you wish the outcome had been different. Make a corresponding list of one thing for each event that would have changed something significant.
Challenge Assignment: Write a (fictional) short story about anything, the story should be at least 1000 words (more if you can). Rewrite the story changing the outcome by changing an event or character. Rewrite that story and again change something to change the ending.
