In a recent chat with my friend Fantasia she asked how to write about something that doesn’t really catch your interest. That’s a head-scratcher. It seems to me that many young writers face having assignments that don’t flow because they are someone else’s idea.
Ideas are seldom in short supply. At any one time I have three or four potential writing repositories on my person, ready to capture any thought that I can cage. Still, the ideas—often the ones that feel like the best—come when writing or even recording is not an option. In heavy traffic. In the shower. In the dentist’s chair. At a faculty meeting. Just before sleep hits in earnest. (The last two may occur simultaneously.)
Life is too full of ideas to have to cater to some instructor’s whims. Nevertheless, I had to admit to Fantasia that writing what you don’t want to is good exercise. All writing is good. That’s not to say that it is all good writing, but it is good for the writer. And like exercise, sometimes it isn’t pleasant. Or even barely tolerable.
Those who have the luxury to write when they are inspired, those who have received money for what others of us have spent thousands of hours doing without recompense, may not realize just how lucky they are.
What do I do when I have to write something I’m not really interested in? Something unexpected. The unexpected work may be, if past experience is anything to go by, the one that publishers might actually find worth a little consideration.
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