THURSDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2019
What do you write about?
If you look at stories that have appeared in the last year, you see books on drugs and people hooking up, children who disappear and people hooking up, and small towns and people hooking up; you see stories about poverty, wealth, and the dreams of middle-class people. If you look at storylines from movies that have appeared over the past couple of years, you see superheroes, action heroes, fantasy worlds, dinosaurs, murderous machines, and people hiding in the woods. If you’re interested in non-fiction, themes covered in books that have appeared in the last year include politicians, politicians’ wives, world wars, other wars, religion, ways to improve yourself, ways to make money, and the things you learn when you travel the world. Same with material on the Internet. There are popular websites covering just about any fad, hobby, interest or obsession you can think of.
So what do you write about then?
You still write stories you want to tell, even though similar stories have already appeared. And if you don’t consider yourself much of a storyteller but you feel you have an opinion or two you want to share, you write about matters that are important to you, no matter how many books or articles on the topic have already appeared.
Why? Because your perspective is different from that of the next man or woman. And even if it’s similar, you’ll probably write about it differently, with other examples or case studies, or you’ll describe situations or state your views in other words.
Ultimately, you share yourself with people who share the planet with you, or who will inhabit the planet long after you’ve left Earth for a colony on Mars or a place in the Nothingness. You share with others what you believe, how you see things, how you experience things, what you think of what other people believe, even what you think of stories written by other people, or films made by other people, or political manifestos published by others.
You are not the next person, and your experience of the human condition on planet Earth is to a great extent unique. Write about it – for yourself, for your neighbours, your friends, your family, and for people you will never meet because they will discover your writing fifty years from now in a digital form that will only be developed ten years from now. And just maybe one person finds one thing you said, or the way you explained something, entertaining, or encouraging, or educational.
In short, keep writing.
______________________