Not Write

In the first day of the writing class I'm taking, the instructor told us that a lot of the in-class exercises would be autobiograhpical. As such, things might get personal but "don't reveal anything more than you're comfortable with. Try to define your comfort zone, and push your limits whenever you can. Sounds sort of like an S&M party, doesn't it?"

Last night, we had to do short 5-minute freewrite, just for us -- not to be read aloud, on what we wouldn't write about.

I listed some family dramas, secrets I know about other people that would be hurtful, work issues (when I had them), my undercover missions with SD-6, that goat I had to fuck for a fraternity initiation, etc.

We didn't have to read aloud, but we did talk about how it felt to write about the unwriteables. I ended up overthinking (surprise) and saying I'd write about most anything, but not blog about certain things. I'm becoming more and more comfortable with fictionalizing real life unmentionables and turning them into fodder for stories.

One guy in class had no qualms sharing his list. "It's really short," he said. "Celine Dion. I hate her."

And we love him for that.