What Janet Said

Janet Reid has a nice post today about writing what you know, and how if you are an average person, that's probably the recipe for boring.

I had just started this post when, as if to illustrate her point, the phone rang.

"This is Kate."

"Hi, this is Sarah, from Major Internet Company You Used To Work For."

Oy.

Long story short: They offered me a job, which I'm going to decline.

Like the plot of pretty much any story, it can be boiled down to that one sentence. In fact, this is approximately the sentence I'll use to describe the situation should it ever come up in conversation.

Of course there is waaaay more to the story than this, including the staple dramatic features of political maneuvering, subtext-laden dialog, soul searching, etc. But that's the problem: it's all staple. The story is utterly unremarkable in the collective experience of your average readership.

*Sigh* Janet's further point is to write what you are passionate about. Clearly this is easier said than done - what is passion anyway? But maybe the first step is to let go of the distracting sturm und drang of the ordinary. Free our eyes to see the extraordinary.

Or some bullshit like that. I need a bleeping drink.