The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. If you can’t make something out of a little experience, you probably won’t be able to make it out of a lot. – Flannery O’Connor
Writers love casting writers as their protagonists. Our heroes are usually novelists, but often playwrights and journalists, only occasionally poets, and these days I imagine there are plenty of stories about bloggers. We write what we know.
But what else do you know? In a guest post on the highly recommended Jane Friedman’s blog, Joshua Doležal says every writer should keep a list of topics on which we are an authority.
You may already keep a list of authorities in different areas – your co-worker who loves gardening or your friend the World War II buff. You might ask your doctor about certain diseases. I’m certain everyone reading this has a lengthy list of bookmarks to all kinds of websites on esoteric topics.
But what do you know?
Doležal recommends starting a list of topics that we could teach someone about. His list included parenting, songwriting, baseball, gardening, teaching, and wilderness conservation. (I imagine his future adult children might have something to say about that first topic, but I’ll let that slide.) “The more you add to your list, the more you’ll remember,” he says.
Once you begin that list, you might see scenes developing. When you identify an authority area, break it down into multiple discrete tasks that you must know well to be an authority. Then think about times you used these skills – What was the situation? Who was there? Did you gain or lose anything from the encounter?
Rather than making a list of topics to write about, your goal is to generate memories. Find what intrigues or captivates you and search for the nugget of knowledge or insight that you might share.
My list of things I can talk about ad nauseum with some intelligence:
Comic books, Mormonism, U.S. presidential politics, government contract law and regulations, pulp fiction magazines, the gay civil rights movement, mindfulness, podcasting and audio editing, libraries, U.S. history 1920-1945, self-publishing, publication design. And writing.
The makings of a real potboiler.