How do You Know What Subject is Best for Your Writing?

Tell me.

What’s your story?

You have to have a hook, right?

You have about 30 seconds to get someone’s attention rather a literary agent, publisher, or someone to whom you’re trying to introduce your writing.

 

I know the feeling.  It still sometimes feels uncomfortable for me to feel like I’m promoting my writing when some people might see it as spam or as another writer trying to “make it.”

Before we even get to that point, we need to back away, just a little from all the social media, to ensure we know what subject is best for our writing.

But, Becca You Said…

In my last blog, I talked about the need to expand your platform. 

You still need to expand your platform as you write, but the trick is to avoid making it your complete focus. It’s easy to get lost in the scrolls and endless stories or comments.

Use the polite or good online social interaction with other writers, so you’re not just promoting your writing. Promote the fact you support other writers.  Just avoid spending all your time on Twitter or another site because then it robs you of your time with your writing.

I believe it steals writing time. Some of us have more time than others to write. I’ve met some people who just started writing at different parts of life. I’ve written since I could write, and the trick is you must write about a lot of different subject matter before you get to what works best for you as a writer.

What is Best for You to Write?

I’m speaking less about poetry vs. fiction.

When you write, are you writing about the subject you research, one you know, one you research and love, or one you know and love?

An author came to speak to my Creative Writing class at my state’s university in 2005.  She wrote a fictional account about a biological researcher who lived under Stalin in the Soviet Union, and she’d never been to the Soviet Union. She did visit the island where the scientist often did his research.  She claimed that a Russian praised her for her descriptions of a certain part of the Soviet Union, and how he disbelieved an American author wrote it.

Her point?

She stated that you did not have to know your story from your life. You could research it, and write it with accuracy and love.

When you discipline yourself to be less distracted by the online world and you focus on your writing, then you’re able to explore which subject works best for your writing. It takes years to develop it.

I wrote my first novel when I was in middle school. I wrote poetry in high school, and when I became more serious about writing in college, I moved forward with fiction. This is where I really developed my craft. Then I found I had a knack for writing memoir, nonfiction, and personal essay.

Writing about autism and mental illness has helped me explore things we need to discuss, such as: do we want to keep dis in a word to describe a person?

I’m not in a hurry to share my memoir with others for samples or editing because I still have a lot I want to explore. Like space as the new frontier, there are a lot of places I’ve yet to discover or settle.