Write what you Know? Don’t You Dare.

If I wrote what I know, I’d never read what I’d written, it would be boring What I know is boring: how to put together an entertainment center: use a good set of pliers. How to set up a screenplay: use Final Draft. That Meryl Streep is a great actress: watch her movies. That Toni Morrison is an awesome writer: read. Some of the things I know.

What I don’t know and for the most part (for some of them) I don’t want to ever know but I’m eager to imagine and write about: how long it takes to dig a hole to bury a body in the winter’s old dirt of the Minnesota woods. What its like to ride in an armored car full of money; terrifying you think? How long does it take for the Macy’s Day parade to end? What it’s like being a spy. What it’s like living in New York City. What it feels like to almost drown in a lake or even in your own home; the living room for example. What its like being a DEA agent and going on a raid. What it’s like being a man. How many homicide detectives are assigned to a New York precinct house?

The list can go on for miles but the thing each has in common is that they’re not boring; at least not to me. They get my blood flowing. They put the ink on the yellow legal pad one page at a time, hopefully. I can’t imagine writing what I know, it takes no imagination to put together the place where my television will sit, but it takes great and colorful megawatts of brain power, a kaleidoscope of thoughts, suppositions, questions, what ifs, anything goes, nothing can’t be done, try this out, find this out, go for it, let it flow, just write it—a great big world-chewing-imagination to write what I love which is the stuff I don’t know. There is no other way for me; thank goodness

If you would like to give me your take on Writing please e-mail me at: shabazzlm@hotmail.com

Until next time,

Lori