Write what you know….

They say “write what you know.” Whoever they are, I get what they mean, but there is so much that I don’t know. I am just winging it. One of my challenges in writing is trying to pretend that I have had the normal everyday experiences that my audience had. I spent the majority of my formative years living in rural Alaska, isolated from the social experiences that “City kids” usually get. My school was somewhat small, comparatively and after school social engagements were difficult to do, due to geography. People tended to live pretty far away and there is no transit system in the bush. Moving to “the lower 48’s” was a culture shock and since I had gotten used to isolation, it pretty much cemented my brain in a state of permanent introversion. High did not spend much time attending high school, and when I did my scope of friends was very small, so I missed out (Thank god) on the usual high school drama and typical situations that most people did. I dropped out and began entering the workforce early. No High school diploma so no college.

How do I write about the high school and college experiences that I have never shared? Most of my “research” has been watching TV about it, but I am not entirely convinced that those are typical or genuine. “write what you know.”…. Hmm.. I guess I will continue to fake it, and hope no one notices. Honestly there are a lot of situations like this, mostly social, that I am guessing about. Maybe, that I don’t have some of those experiences, that my pretending can actually end up being a fresh take on it, and maybe those situation are more likely to be more genuine than the entertainment industry tropes.