Hey all my dear subscribers,

When I teach creative writing I try to give out as little prescriptive advice as possible. I'd always rather raise questions and ideas and let writers come to their own prescriptions through that. However, there are two pieces of advice that I do always give. I'll get to the second one in a future letter, but the first is a reinvention of a piece of advice that I've never vibed with. Write what you know. We've all heard it. Been told it a million times. And, at some level, it's good advice: you should write from experience, from feelings you've had, from your place of understanding in the world. But, it's also wildly stifling advice in many ways. 

So, the piece of advice that I give is Write What You Want to Know. What does that mean exactly? It's that I think writers should always be explorers in some way. Maybe you want to understand your family, your body, your brain. Maybe you want to understand something further from you: outer space, the distance that time makes. If you ask yourself questions, and drive your writing from those questions it opens up a world of storytelling to you.

But how do you ask those questions? As someone who is honestly somewhat incapable at grasping simple concepts, I find that I need to start with the basics. I ask simple questions: how does A work? What causes A to become B? Then I start researching. For example, I write a lot about space. I love space and can envision it and what kind of feelings it might stir up in people. What I don't know is the actual science behind it. So I read a lot of research about it. This has led me to creating some of my favorite stories because pieces of research and beginning to understand different concepts has led me to creating fuller and richer storyscapes to play inside of when I'm writing about space.

But questioning also doesn't have to be technical in nature. I've certainly wondered what a monster would feel or what John Wick would think if he ordered a coffee and got the wrong size. Those might seem like surface level or silly questions, but they are still grasping at what I want to know. The basketball book I've been working on for years comes down to me grasping to understand what it's like to have reached a pinnacle and never crossed through it, at trying to understand what it's like to age out of the person you thought you would become. 

If you want to start Writing what you want to know, I suggest starting with a super simple question that you've always wondered and seeing what rabbit holes of exploration it opens up for you. Always follow more than one thread, because the more you untangle then the richer the story that you create.As a writer, asking questions should become a reflex to everything. Be that little kid who always asks why to any answer.

Prompt:

Start with a simple question. For example: how does an astronaut's perception of their body in space change how they move?

Think of at least three ways to "research" it: these can be wikipedia pages, listening to a podcast, talking to someone else about it (sometimes seeing what someone understands about a topic can help you elucidate what it is that you don't understand), etc.

Think about what you've learned and what it sparked in your mind. Write down a new form of your original question. For example: if an astronaut begins to lose an understanding of their body's ability to move in gravity, how does that affect how they think?

Research again, but this time with writing. Jot down notes and thoughts as you research, try to see what questions your research is opening up.

As another question. For example, how do you know who you are if you lose a sense of your body in time and space?

Once you've reached what feels like the question, then write. Inform what you want to know with what you know and create the ultimate writing advice sandwich of goodness.

Here's the story that came out of the example questions I used here.

Thanks for reading.

–Chloe

P.S. Until May 1st, I'm running a giveaway. If you're among the people who have subscribed up until that point (or the first 100 subscribers--another lofty goal), then you'll be entered to win some signed copies of my books and weird merch I've made for them over the years. Do a friend a solid and tell them to sign up winks garishly