W.R.M.

The Democrats wanted Medicare for All. The Republicans wanted Free Market Healthcare (aka poor people die). Obama took a plan initially conceived by the Heritage Foundation (those project 2025 fuckers) and implemented by Romney for Massachusetts to say "hey, you can have a little free market, but we gotta cover other people too".

It was already a compromise. And the Republicans lost their shit and have proceeded to spend fifteen years crying about their own plan being rampant socialism and repeatedly trying to repeal it despite never actually having a back-up plan for healthcare, simply because they never really wanted compromise to begin with. The moment Obama got elected, they got into a meeting and vowed to tear down everything he tried to build no matter how much it agreed with their so-called values. Because racism, let's be honest, but also because any compromise they put forward is just a show.

If you have to ask yourself, should I write the thing? The answer is yes.

BUT WHAT IF IT'S BEEN WRITTEN BEFORE?

You didn't write your version of it. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF NO ONE WANTS TO READ IT?

You want to read it. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF IT'S DUMB?

Lots of things are dumb. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF IT'S SUCH A POPULAR SHIP/TROPE/GENRE/FANDOM THAT IT'LL NEVER GET SEEN?

You'll see it. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF IT'S CORNY?

Corn is delicious. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF IT'S PROBLEMATIC?

People got problems. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT WHAT I'M WRITING ABOUT?

The internets has lots of resources. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF PEOPLE THINK LESS OF ME FOR IT?

They would have found a reason to think less of you anyway. Write the thing.

BUT WHAT IF--

These are impressive, by author Steve Erickson. A small sample, but please go and read the whole:

Option one: The murder victim was innocent while the killer was an abusive bastard, see Speckled Band. Conclusion, arrest and have the killer charged (Or in the case of Speckled Band, indirectly murder him yourself then shrug and go home)

@beast-glatisant​ The Doyle esate sued the “Enola Holmes” Netflix show about an OC Sherlock’s younger sister, for copyright infringement, with the argument that only after the 1920s, in the still-copyrighted stories, did Holmes “became capable of friendship. He could express emotion. He began to respect women.”

                One of the most common pieces of writing advice other than “show don’t tell” is “write what you know”. It’s said so much that I think it’s lost a lot of meaning, and people tend to only focus on the literal meaning of ‘write about things that you know about’, which would completely erase fantasy, sci-fi, or just about any slightly fantastical fiction.

                So rather, you should think of it as ‘write genuinely’. Connect with yourself to connect with your readers, create emotional ties to your work, write with empathy, write what you know.

                There’s three things we can do to help connect us with concepts/places/experiences we don’t know, that’ll allow you to basically write whatever you want. Here’s what I do:             

Research

Anything you can learn about what you’re writing about can come in handy. I tend to avoid scholarly articles or Wikipedia when researching because I find having a list of facts doesn’t help as much as having a library of experiences. If I’m writing about California but have never been there, I could learn that rain is pretty uncommon and temperature averages however much during the summer, or I could read about someone talking about their childhood summers in heavy heat and icecream that melts faster than they can eat it.

                Essentially, unless you’re writing something with the intention of educating others—don’t worry as much about the facts, look for more about the feelings. Blogs, vlogs, personal journal entries, and other pieces of fiction is where it’s at.

2. Substitution

This is a method I learned in directing (created by Lee Strasberg) that’s a little controversial when using it with actors, but since we’re using it for ourselves it’s fine. Essentially, if actors are attempting a scene about a situation they’ve never been in before (I’ll use the example of moving out for the first time) the director will ask them to recall a situation with similar emotion even if the situation was different.

                So in our example, if you haven’t moved out yet but are writing a scene where your character is leaving home for the first time, you might be able to emotionally connect to that scene through recalling the emotions you went through the first time you went to sleep-over camp. Or the time your parents left you alone for the weekend for the first time. Anything with the similar emotions you imagine the situation would bring up (fear, anxiety, but a sense of freedom, excitement, unsureness).

                The reason why this is a bit of a controversial technique in directing is because asking actors to recall or share painful memories to get into a scene can be very upsetting or uncomfortable for them, so if you’re a director, be cautious with this!

3. Experiencing

Of course, this all comes back to what we talked about a couple weeks ago. Experiencing to know more. The more you know, the better you can write genuinely about it—so go out and gather some unique experiences!

1. Find the thing the character wants to say, their deepest and most fundamental truth.

2. Congratulations! That’s the one thing they cannot, under any circumstances, say. Imagine they’re under a fairy curse if you have to.