This week I got addicted to a little known game of murder...
Everyone must, at one point or another, have played Cluedo. Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Revolver? Or was it Mrs White in the Kitchen with the Dagger? We know the characters, we know the game, but did you know you can now play on your phone?
Write what you know
This is good, general advice. If you're a bartender, pull from every bad customer and weird conversation that can happen at 2AM, when booze in the only thing on the menu. If you have a background in science, walk us through an experiment in the lab and make it interesting. And even that your characters and stories (you'd hope) are a work of fiction, if you choose to write what you don't know, you'd better research it. Thinking of having a transgender character? Or a character that comes from a different culture than your own? Do the work to ensure stereotypes and unconscious biases don't seep in.
Of course, more than knowledge, you still need a story, and that's when obsession becomes your friend.
The Short Story
My obsession with solving a murder on my phone, while feeding my son in the early hours of the morning, I thought was a mindless activity that I should try to ween myself off. And then a story idea hit. Not an original one, fairly obviously. I'm sure there are many Cluedo-inspired murder mysteries, but developing a story from something very familiar to you and coming up with your own spin on it is sometimes the creative juice that hits best.
So far it's going well, a few more scenes to write and then it's edit time. But the process of plotting, thinking of character backgrounds and switching POV's of these well-known characters, has been massively enjoyable. Easy, even. All because of my old friend, Obsession. Write what you know, but also write what you're obsessed with.
In other news
The short story I wrote last month has been shortlisted! Awaiting to hear if it'll make the cut to publication, but very happy with the feedback. Especially that the reviewer thought the ending was strong as I feel I could still make some changes to that in particular... But when doesn't a piece of writing still need editing?
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