Here's a wonderful post about writing, and specifically, writing about what you love. I've heard the words "write what you know" since I was knee high to a Smith-Corona, and for a long time I figured whoever said it was leaving out all the fantasy and science fiction writers, 'cause, really, who knows unicorns and fairy dust?

But then I met Maureen McHugh at Viable Paradise in 1999, and she told us all that writing what you know is really writing about the weird and odd and neato bits that you are passionate or obsessive about. Her first novel is about goats, she said, and Mars and China and the culture of homosexuality. She loved the topics, was obsessed with them, and wrote from the heart. Her passion is evident in the way she crafts all her stories.

So . . . I've probably mentioned it before, but this kind of writing, the passions and obsessions, is what it makes it all worthwhile. Yay, potato chips! Other writing, bland and boring, and maybe good for you, is just sugarless Cream of Wheat.

Or maybe malt-o-meal. Blech.

Link via JayLake