Write What You Know

John burst into my office on Monday morning “I’ve thought of a great new hobby” he said walking up to my desk, wearing a huge grin. “Not only is it going to keep me busy, it will earn me loads of money!”

“Oh yes,” I sighed “and what are you going to do now?”

“I’m taking up writing. I shall start by writing a few short stories then move on to my blockbuster novel”

“That’s great, but what makes you think that you will stick with this? You were going to make a load of money taking up philately and trade in buying and selling stamps. Before you actually bought or sold any stamps you started dabbling with Bitcoin and other crypto currencies. Last year you spent about a thousand pounds on buying a top of the range camera and kit, convinced that you could turn photography into a profitable hobby. I could carry on but you know as well as I do that you have lots of ideas but never stick to them.”

John’s smile faded and he dumped himself on to the chair on the other side of my desk.

I had known John since school where he had shown lots of potential but didn’t revise properly for his exams and scraped through with grades too low to get him into college. He drifted from job to job but never found anything he could stick at. He was now working for me in the mail department. He was doing reasonably well but I knew he was capable of achieving much more if he would only learn to concentrate and stick to a plan.

He was a very likeable person who was a good friend, always willing to help anyone out and was good company socially. But what could I do to help him stick to this hobby and help him develop into a competent writer?

“I will tell you what John, give me a couple of days to think about it and I am sure that we will be able to come up with a plan to help you make a success of this. Let’s go to the pub after work on Friday and we can work things out together.”

Friday arrived and we walked over to the pub just a short walk from the office. As usual for a Friday after work the bar was crowded so I sent John to find a quiet table well away from the hustle and bustle while I pushed to the front and ordered a couple of pints. Glasses in hand I struggled through the crowd and found John sitting at a table for two in the far corner. I had spent the previous few days researching the internet to get some ideas to help John. I handed him his pint and took the seat opposite him.

“Cheers” I said, raising my glass, “now lets get you sorted out. First, can you tell me what you have written since Monday?”

“Err I haven't written anything yet, I was waiting for tonight to see what you had come up with.”

I sighed in desperation. “One of the first things I came across was a story about the American author, Sinclair Lewis who had been asked to address a group of students and give a talk on creative writing. He asked how many of them wanted to be writers and they all eagerly raised their hand. Lewis looked at them and said then why aren’t you at home writing, and then walked off the stage. Do you get that message? If you wish to become a writer you must sit down and write whenever you get the opportunity. Understand?”

John nodded, took a swig of beer and then started talking about football, a favourite topic for both of us. After about 20 minutes he stood up saying that it was his round and went up to the bar. While he was away I determined to get the topic back onto his writing – the reason we had agreed to meet that evening. I took out my note book containing the results of my research.

When he returned I said “Right John, lets get a plan written down that is going to help you. First, what time of day will you make yourself sit down and write, how long will you write for in each session or will you set a target of how many words you will write before stopping” I continued with several other ideas which John took note of and promised to come up with a plan over the weekend. We agreed to come into the office half an our early on Monday morning to discuss them.

Monday morning arrived and John had drawn up a plan to help get himself started. He was going to get up early each morning and write for half an hour before having breakfast and he would then write for an hour each evening before going to bed. At the end of each week we would go to the pub again and review his progress.

So the following Friday we found ourselves back in the bar, at the same table as the previous week.

I again bought the beers before asking John how he had got on and how much he had written. To my disappointment, but not really surprise, he admitted that he hadn't written anything!

“For God’s sake, what is wrong with you!” I shouted.

“Well I tried but just couldn’t think of what to write about” he said sheepishly.

“OK, lets get this sorted. Write what you know about. What’s on your mind at the moment that you would like to get off your chest?”

John sat and thought for a little while before replying.

“I guess I have been just wasting my time playing computer games to take my mind off the fact that I couldn’t get started writing.”

I told him to go home, get his laptop out and write a short story about not being able to concentrate on writing and not knowing what to write about and that I expected him to come into the office on Monday morning and show me what he had written.

So John did finish his first short story, thanks to his friend’s advice to write about something he knew. And dear readers, John is basically me, and I have been trying to write for many years but have only now really put my mind to it, and hopefully this will be the first of many!!