I finally broke my own rule about writing what you know

Last Tuesday I sat down to write a flash fiction piece set in a Victorian-era London fog scene. I spent 4 hours researching gas lamps and cobblestone streets before giving up and writing about my actual job at a coffee shop in Portland. The Victorian piece felt dead on the page. The coffee shop story wrote itself in 45 minutes. Why do we keep forcing ourselves to write in worlds we don't actually know? Has anyone else wasted a whole evening trying to fake expertise instead of just writing about your own weird life?

2 comments

2 Comments

caleb_thomas931mo ago

Fake it till you nap, I guess.

the_margaret1mo ago

Honestly the whole "grind till you die" culture is just exhausting these days.