Life Imitating Art

OK, I seem to find that all my story ideas involve what is currently going on in my life at the moment. I suppose if I were ever to really sit and write something, it'd be all about my life. Maybe I should just be a memoir writer.

Are there any good ideas for developing creativity, so that all my characters don't sound the same and they don't all sound like me. Is it better to write about what you know or to say hell with it, I've never been a doctor, but if I were one this is what I would do?

Take an acting class.

If you can't do that, read some acting books, like _An Actor Prepares_ by somebody or other or _Impro_ by Keith Johnstone.

other people

Yes, stop writing about yourself and start writing about other people. You've certainly known many other people, from your kindergarten teacher to people you work with to, well, to all the other people you've known.

Put real people into your fiction. A little bit of you will be in every character, this is unavoidable, but if you concentrate on writing about other people, the characters will sound different and unique because they will be different and unique.

"Write what you know" is the best thing any writer can do, but it's almost always taken the wrong way. It mostly just means write about emotions you know, feeling s you've felt, the things that make us all human.

But it can also mean work skills and knowledge you have into the fiction. A good idea. A very good idea.

It never, however, means you shouldn't write about a doctor just because you aren't one. It isn't really about what you would do if you were a doctor, but how would you feel, if you were a doctor.

And if you don't know something, then you research it until you do know. Then you can write about it.

Mostly, you read. You read often and you read as widely as possible. You read everything from the classics to your favorite genre writer. You read at least as much as you write. We all learn to write by reading.

Re: other people

Acting class is a great idea.

Or observe the other people in your life -- it may be a story about YOU, but there are other characters other than you, right? The mother? The father? The siblings? The best friends? The mean boss? What are they like? They sure cannot be just like you...

And if you can't get inside of them and figure them out, back to "take an acting class." It helps.

As a writer, you not only "tell a story" but you also have to "pretend" to be these characters to be able to come up with something authentic. If you're writing about a drug addict and you don't know anything about them, spend some time with a drug addict.