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A prompt about 'write what you know' fell flat at my local library meetup in Tulsa
Last Saturday I went to a writing group at the Hardesty Regional Library in Tulsa and the theme was 'write what you know.' Everyone nodded along like it was gospel. But here is the thing, I have been in that group for 8 months and the stories that stick with people are never the ones pulled straight from real life. The best piece read that day was about a talking crow who ran a failing hardware store, and the guy who wrote it is a retired plumber. Meanwhile the prompt about using your own memories got 12 people writing basically the same sad story about their dad's truck. I think 'write what you know' is lazy advice that keeps people stuck in boring territory. It should be 'write what you are curious about' or 'write the thing you cannot stop thinking about.' Curious if anyone else has seen a prompt backfire like that at their local group.
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sammartinez12d ago
The part about "12 people writing basically the same sad story about their dad's truck" had me rolling lol. You're right though, that prompt is basically a factory for sad pickup truck stories and grandma's kitchen smells. The talking crow running a failing hardware store is way more interesting than another memory about a dead relative, and the plumber thing makes it even funnier. I bet half those dad truck stories didn't even happen, people just panicked and grabbed the first memory they could find. Write what you know just means write what you've already lived, and nobody's life is that interesting on paper without some weird twist. Curious what you mean by backfire though, did people actually get mad at the crow story?
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