Experience

by Andrew
(Ithaca, NY)

Imagine this: You're standing at the top of a two-hundred foot tall cliff. You look over the edge and realize how far up you are. You stagger backwards, and inadvertently break the ledge you are standing on. You plummet down, sure that you will die.

While you might not have the same scene in your story, you might have something different that you hope never to experience. None of us want to fall off a cliff, but to write about it, you should probably know a little about the feelings of it. From the situation above, think of an idea of something that might feel close to the same (without dying, of course). A roller coaster probably comes to mind.

I came to a conclusion a little while ago that in order to write about something, you need to have an experience like it. There are exceptions, like breaking an arm or leg. No one wants to purposely inflict pain on themselves, so you can just remember the worst pain you have felt and write about that.

If you're not much of a roller coaster person (or whatever you're thinking of) than ask someone you know who has had that experience and find out what it felt like or what they were thinking. I find this tip particularly useful and I hope it helps you.