Writer of All Trades

One thing I love about it writing is the ability it gives me to learn about so many other subjects.

An old chestnut states, “Write what you know.” Some people are experts at a topic or skill and write from that expertise. I’ve never mastered any skill except writing (and some might debate that). I love writing, and it normally comes easily to me. In order to write about something well, though, you have to know enough about it to explain it to someone else.

That’s the real work of writing—knowing something well and being able to pass on that knowledge. In the course of my life, I’ve learned many things and interviewed many people. Not as many as more famous, prolific writers, but enough to know more than most about an embarrassing number of topics—and yet not enough to be an expert in any of them. I find myself being a “jack of all trades and master of none,” and it’s okay. I think that’s the place most professional writers find themselves living. It’s a state of constant curiosity, of exploration and expansion and reinvention.

I remember a professor in graduate school telling a story about author Debbie Macomber. If I remember that discussion (it was 20 years ago, so forgive me if I get the details wrong), she was already a successful writer when she saw that knitting was coming back into fashion as a pastime.

She decided to center her next novels around that trend, but first had to research the world of knitting in order to have an authentic backdrop for her novels. The Blossom Street novels were born, along with several other non-fiction forays into knitting and knitting patterns. I confess that I have never followed Macomber's books, but I have no doubt she has since reinvented her novels and, in a sense, herself.

For me, reinventing myself is not a matter of being uncomfortable in my own skin. It’s more of a curiosity about what it’s like to live in someone else’s skin for a while. I think it must be similar to acting. I immerse myself in a world for a while, and then move on.

So what have I been doing lately? I’ve been dabbling, expanding. When I’ve dabbled a bit more, I’ll share what I’ve learned.

Maybe one of these days I will become an expert on keeping my house clean.

Speaking of knitting, I found these rascals playing with my circular
knitting needles a few minutes ago. I love these kittens to death,
but at eight weeks old, they do nothing to help keep the
house clean, and a lot to make it dirty--such as when they knock over
my basket of needlework and take a nap on top of the contents.