What Should I Write? by Shay Wolff
It’s a question many of us ask ourselves at some point in our lives, whether we write recreationally or out of obligation. For some, writing comes easily; these people have ideas—frequently—and have no issues with pouring them all out onto a page or a notes app or a word doc. For many, however, writing isn’t something that comes naturally. It is something to be done on rare occasions, like when your professor assigns you an essay and leaves the topic more open ended. Even I, as someone who would call myself a “writer” and who enjoys the craft immensely, have had my fair share of hours spent staring down a blank document.
So, how are you supposed to answer that question? Many would say the answer is to “write whatever you want”, but how are you meant to do that when there are so many options? No matter how true the answer is, the fact remains that at times it feels impossible to choose one single thing.
Something that clicked for me when I was a sophomore taking a fiction writing class was that I could write a piece that’s inspired by something else I like. There is nothing stopping me from doing so. People like to throw around the idea that “there is no such thing as an original story”, which can sound a little disheartening when you get around to writing. But, if you get too wrapped up in the desire to write something shiny and new and never-been-done-before, you run the risk of never starting because you never get The Idea. Every author’s story is a giant combination of every single story they’ve experienced before, blended together and picked through to recycle into a new story.
My advice to you: write what you like. Pick a book you love, or a show that means a lot to you, or a movie that really moved you. Then pick it apart: What did you like about it? What themes made you enjoy it the most? Was it the genre that stood out to you? Or the types of characters? Then, once you’ve decided on these factors, see if you can write something new, using them as inspiration. It doesn’t have to be one book or show or movie; you can take as many as you’d like and Frankenstein it into your own story.
At the end of the day, writing is supposed to be fun. You should enjoy yourself while you create—if your readers enjoy what you like, that’s an added bonus, but ultimately your writing should be something that you want to read. As long as you’re not plagiarizing other authors, there’s nothing wrong with having a story that seems “cliche” or “unoriginal”. It's still yours.
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