the most difficult idea/topic to write about?

[cacian]

for me it will have to be violence/death/killing anything that suggests the my characters might get hurt in any process of my writing.

[YesNo]

I think writing about love is the most difficult topic to handle. For me, the killing/violence/death stuff is easy to write about, although when I'm done I don't want to show it to anyone.

[cacian]

I think writing about love is the most difficult topic to handle. For me, the killing/violence/death stuff is easy to write about, although when I'm done I don't want to show it to anyone.

you don't want to show it to anyone because you think it is not convincing or good enough?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

you don't want to show it to anyone because you think it is not convincing or good enough?

I'm guessing it's because it might reveal an aspect of YesNo's personality/mind that he'd (I'm sorry, YesNo, in all this time I've never asked/figured out if you're a man or a woman) rather not reveal to others. I've written things I've not wanted to share for that reason. It's ironic, a lot of what I've written I'd be more comfortable sharing here than with my family, mostly things I've written about depression, because a lot of my family (including myself and my father) have death with it.

I can't really think of a certain thing that's hard for me to write about. I guess it would be anything I'm not familiar with, like if I had to write a story about Indian history or architecture, to name two topics among many I'm unfamiliar with. Maybe that's why, if I actually ever decide to attempt a novel, it'd be fantasy--no worrying about historical accuracies there.

When it comes to broader things, like violence, love, and sex, I'm pretty confident in my ability to write about them if need be--not because I'm personally well-versed in the subjects, but because I've read enough writing about them to get the idea . . . though I doubt I'd rarely make violence or sex a central theme of my writing, as I almost never read about those topics without cringing at the inevitable clichés that come along with it.

Well, this turned out to be a longer post then I originally intended.

[hawthorns]

Love/romance would certainly be a subject that would frighten me. It seems like so few can do it effectively, even among the greats.

[YesNo]

I'm guessing it's because it might reveal an aspect of YesNo's personality/mind that he'd (I'm sorry, YesNo, in all this time I've never asked/figured out if you're a man or a woman) rather not reveal to others. I've written things I've not wanted to share for that reason. It's ironic, a lot of what I've written I'd be more comfortable sharing here than with my family, mostly things I've written about depression, because a lot of my family (including myself and my father) have death with it.
Yes, that would be the reason. I suppose it could be considered more therapeutic writing.

Also, I wouldn't want to make someone else feel uncomfortable reading it. In that sense the writing was as cacian suggests not good enough and I wouldn't want it, looking back, to be convincing anyway.

I think the mark of a good writer is the ability to write about love or compassion. Many start off writing about supposedly deep themes of suffering angst, but aren't able to resolve that in any way. Writing about one's own angst is not deep until it has been resolved.

[cacian]

Love/romance would certainly be a subject that would frighten me. It seems like so few can do it effectively, even among the greats.

Interesting, I would have thought that was the easiest thing to write about because love and romance is inherent or natural to human beings.
I am better at writing a nice scene then a horrible one.

[Cosmopolis]

Interesting, I would have thought that (http://wrath-of-heroes.browsergamez.com/) was the easiest thing to write about because love and romance is inherent or natural to human beings.


I'm on the same page, cacian. I find to write about love way easier. I find (http://world-of-warplanes.browsergamez.com/) writing about stuff that I haven't personally expierienced, yet hard. Like for example about parenthood, or unemployment or something...

[kelby_lake]

Animals. I always feel that something bad will happen to them :(

[Delta40]

Vaginas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WziyFLzOS_4

[tonywalt]

It's not so much that I have trouble writing about some of the things I have done - and still do, but more the thougt of people I know reading about it.

I am doing it now and it really makes me scream PSEUDONYM NEEDED!

[michaelsbearre]

I think gay marriage and abortion would be the most difficult because it's such a bias topic. Regardless of good the writing is, if you're for either, you're gonna offend the other half and vice versa.

[Des Essientes]

The philosophical movement known as Phenomenology made an effort to write about human perception in all its vast diversity, but its practitioners did run into some difficulty. One famous example of this difficulty was the attempt to write about what it feels like to be clothed. The feeling of clothes upon our bodies is something we have for most of the waking day but when one attempts to verbally describe what wearing clothes feels like one is well neigh stumped for words to convey the sense of the phenomena.

[Dark Muse]

For me the hardest thing to write about his children, because that is one thing that is way out of my comfort zone and of which I feel quite ignorant about. When it comes to child characters, I have no idea what would be the "natural/normal" or "appropriate" way for children to act at certain ages. I never know if I am making them seem too immature of their age, or too mature for their age. Nor do I know that developmental stages of children, so I do not know what degree of intelligence, understanding, functions, they should have at different ages.

I have no maternal instincts so I also really have no conception of the bond/relationship between parents and children, so usually to be able to relate I have to think, ok, what if the child was a puppy, the way I would feel about that puppy would reflect the way a normal person would feel about a child.

[RicMisc]

To me things like love and children are very difficult to write about because I just do not have a sufficient amount of knowledge on the subjects. But even if I were to have more experience in the love section I think it would still be hard for me to put into words what being in love is and what it does to a person.

Absolutely the most difficult thing for me to write about, not really to write about but to have read by others, is when I incorporate something personal in my stories. I am usually a very introvert person and writing is sort of my outlet for that but it's hard for me to let others read those things, they're my feelings and thoughts.

[Whifflingpin]

Very few writers can manage happiness without its become trite.

A challenge I set myself (and failed) was simply to describe leaves on a tree. Each one is unique, but, in general it is not possible to describe more than a few in any unique way (obviously, the actual position of the leaf cannot be used in this game.)

[cacian]

Very few writers can manage happiness without its become trite.

A challenge I set myself (and failed) was simply to describe leaves on a tree. Each one is unique, but, in general it is not possible to describe more than a few in any unique way (obviously, the actual position of the leaf cannot be used in this game.)

How do you mean a each leaf is unique?
That reminds me of each person is unique and I do not see how one can be unique from another.
We are different yes but unique for me one of a kind and as I know humans are the one of a kind in comparison to other livign beings.

[Mona_Marlow]

I would have to say Racism. Either way - you'll piss someone off.

[Whifflingpin]

"How do you mean a each leaf is unique?"

I mean that no leaf is identical to another leaf (I might of course be wrong, but I'm right enough for this game.)

So - keep this simple - take ten similar leaves from the same tree - write a description of each one - then get someone to identify each leaf by your description.
If that is too easy, stand 20 paces away from a tree and try to describe a leaf (without including its location) so that someone standing next to you can recognise it.

[cacian]

"How do you mean a each leaf is unique?"

I mean that no leaf is identical to another leaf (I might of course be wrong, but I'm right enough for this game.)

So - keep this simple - take ten similar leaves from the same tree - write a description of each one - then get someone to identify each leaf by your description.
If that is too easy, stand 20 paces away from a tree and try to describe a leaf (without including its location) so that someone standing next to you can recognise it.

I do not know I mean does it not depend on the weather, the postion of the sun, the light, whether it is dry windy or wet.
Description of something is relative to what it is you wish to convey.
A leaf can have several meanings and waves to it so in this sense I cannot see how one leaf is unique from another.
One is able to tell it is a leaf no matter what tree it is from.
There can be thousands of trees and yet they all bear a leaf/leaves.
I do not know whether I have understood you,a re you able to give an example?

[Whifflingpin]

"...in this sense I cannot see how one leaf is unique from another."

Well, that's OK. I wasn't being deeply philosophical about the nature of "uniqueness." I was simply saying, rightly or wrongly, that no two leaves are exactly the same. However, although it is possible to see that any two leaves are different, it is not always easy to describe the difference.

"Description of something is relative to what it is you wish to convey."
So it is. My game of trying to describe leaves by their differences is just picking on one tiny aspect, i.e. the physical difference between one leaf and its neighbour. To use your own example, but keeping to the simple task of describing a physical difference, try describing the way light reflects from a dry leaf and then from the same leaf when wet.
And then go on to some other aspect of the leaf until you have described it in every way you possibly can, physical, botanical, poetical, philosophical, historical, theological, fantastic, frantic or funny, and when you have finished, ask yourself honestly if you have fully described the leaf. Then go back and describe its taste, and the sound it makes as you rub it against your cheek, and the movement it makes as you drop it to the floor.

And if you find that easy then you will know that you are a better writer than I am (which category you will share with more people than there are leaves in Epping Forest.)

[Alexander III]

I would have to say Racism. Either way - you'll piss someone off.

I have wondered about this too, it seems that the current body of mass mentality would deem you and your work racist if one were to simply write about a racist character, or God forbid you write about a racist character who for the most part is a good human being.

For instance in rel life, in university we use call each other nigger in a friendly sarcastic way, and we use the word a lot, because lets face it, a modern day student is left with very few words in his repertoire which are scandalous, and society has made nigger one of the most taboo words out there, so we naturally flock to the word. Yet were I to write a novel about my university experience I would be either forced to censor reality, or to be damned for presenting reality as it is.

[cacian]

I would have to say Racism. Either way - you'll piss someone off.

racism is vast. writing about or for is two different things.
it is entirely situational and depends on what you are trying to say.

[cacian]

I have wondered about this too, it seems that the current body of mass mentality would deem you and your work racist if one were to simply write about a racist character, or God forbid you write about a racist character who for the most part is a good human being.

For instance in rel life, in university we use call each other nigger in a friendly sarcastic way, and we use the word a lot, because lets face it, a modern day student is left with very few words in his repertoire which are scandalous, and society has made nigger one of the most taboo words out there, so we naturally flock to the word. Yet were I to write a novel about my university experience I would be either forced to censor reality, or to be damned for presenting reality as it is.

I think a word is irresponsible of its meaning only how you mean to say it and why you said that would impact on it and make it 'taboo'.
Sense and sensibility prevail and so one is to use words of any nature very sparingly and in context.
If one wishes to write a series of thoughts regarding a 'taboo word' as you put it then one is allowed so long it is not used against their own readers.
Censorship is not the answer because whilst something carries a tag of cesnsorhip it won't make it go away.
Only with time and logic one is able to outgrow something rather then ban it which is the way forward.
I think one said a picture paints a thousands words and I think a word paints a thousand thoughts.

[Declan]

I think death is the hardest to write about, the great unknown. Not only does no one write from beyond the grave, very few write about their death bed from their death bed, do they? I'd like to read those books.

Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich, from what I'm aware, is the stand-alone book of its kind, a short story all about a dying man. It's the profoundest reading experience I've ever had. I felt holy after reading it - a kind of fear and admiration mixed - which is a feeling I seldom have, as I don't have any super-natural beliefs of any kind. But holy is just a word. Really, I just felt a kind of wonder-filled apprehension. Great book! 60 pages of remarkable imagining. It's the only book I'd recommend to both the living and the dead and to all the animals and plants in creation.

[Declan]

Well, a sadness, simply, is what the story makes you feel. Never mind holy this and wonder that. It's a great story and makes you feel sadness. To be able to engage the reader on a such a confined topic, the loneliness and tragic dilemma of a person withering away within their last moments.

[Varenne Rodin]

I don't have a hard time doing anything because I am cool like that.

People always seem to fail when attempting to write about internet activities and relationships. Always. Just don't do it.

[dark desire]

Anything I am not interested in will be the most difficult to write about. :P Everything else can be explored.

My problem is that there is so much in my head and so little effort in my gut that I do not write as much as I'd like to and when I do, it does not come out as nicely as I would want it to.

[Declan]

Dark Desire, I think it's impossible to write about what you're not interested in. I think living expressions only come out from what's alive inside of you. As Maria sings in The Sound of Music, 'nothing comes from nothing...nothing ever could' :-D

[Declan]

I think one of the hard things is finding what one CAN write about. That's our strength, what we can write about. But it's hard to find our strengths, easy to find our weaknesses. I think we like to keep our strengths covered up, otherwise they accuse us of being unused. Because it's one thing to know our strengths, but it takes real courage to use them. And if we don't use them, but do know them, that's a painful consciousness; because there's no reason why we wouldn't use them. So we hide our strengths away from ourselves, that way they're both unused and painless. That's my 2 cents about myself anyway.

[cacian]

Dark Desire, I think it's impossible to write about what you're not interested in. I think living expressions only come out from what's alive inside of you. As Maria sings in The Sound of Music, 'nothing comes from nothing...nothing ever could' :-D

It all depends on whether nothing comes from something or not.
saying nothing can be saying a lot, something, only one does not hear but can see . A face can tell a thousand words.

[Delta40]

I'm interested in writing about the brutal social realities. This can be difficult because it involves all manner of prejudice and racism and reveals people's characters without questioning their ethics. There are no whys and wherefores and lets make this a happy ending.

[Snowqueen]

Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich, from what I'm aware, is the stand-alone book of its kind, a short story all about a dying man. It's the profoundest reading experience I've ever had.

Death of Ivan Ilyich is favourite story of my father. I haven’t read it but I’ve an idea the way Tolstoy describes the feelings, emotions and sufferings of the dying person and continual torture of those who surround him. I’m reading War and Peace these days and I was surprised to read the last moments of Andrei Bolkonsky. Tolstoy handled the topic of death wonderfully and I haven’t read anything like this before.

[Declan]

Snowqueen :-) if you like Bolkonsky's fading scenes in War and Peace, you'll surely like Ivan Ilyich, too. As you know, the image Tolstoy grasps a hold of with Andrei is the door pressing open. And the way Tolstoy goes at it, that image, it's so moving I find. In Ilyich, he finds another image and goes at it. It's different, though, because he's not leaving behind a loved woman, Ilyich is not in love with a woman, but finding his love for life...but too late.

It's always too late; I think that's the poignancy. No one like Tolstoy.

[Declan]

It is a love story as well, in Ilyich. So, I don't mean to be underselling the romance or spoiling it. But I haven't done either. You're in for a treat when you get round to it. I won't say any more on it. Sure you can't spoil a story that's called the DEATH of Ivan Ilyich :-P

[dark desire]

I'm interested in writing about the brutal social realities. This can be difficult because it involves all manner of prejudice and racism and reveals people's characters without questioning their ethics. There are no whys and wherefores and lets make this a happy ending.

Yes. This fascinates me too. In particular I have this setting in mind that an innocent girl who has been raped lives with a call girl who entertains her customers at the place where they live together. But I don't know where to go beyond the setting.

[dark desire]

I think one of the hard things is finding what one CAN write about. That's our strength, what we can write about. But it's hard to find our strengths, easy to find our weaknesses. I think we like to keep our strengths covered up, otherwise they accuse us of being unused. Because it's one thing to know our strengths, but it takes real courage to use them. And if we don't use them, but do know them, that's a painful consciousness; because there's no reason why we wouldn't use them. So we hide our strengths away from ourselves, that way they're both unused and painless. That's my 2 cents about myself anyway.

I think the pain is often insufficient. Everything is so scattered inside - pain, anger, understanding, even guilt. So much that we don't feel is us, so much that we don't like in us that is stuck to us inside.
But then I think it is good also. For me it is the desire to get free from all this mess inside that pushes me to write. One thing I have realized in my attempts to write is that the things I was holding on most tightly to, thinking they constitute who I am, when I wrote them down, that created a space within me that I never realized was within me. I think this was one of the major breakthroughs in my writings.

I know some people, many people actually who are comfortably ignorant of things within them. They just live, without introspecting ever. It baffles me how can they live like that, how can one live without knowing the problem with them!

I liked the sentence you started your post with. Let's start a thread on that! ;-)

[michaelsbearre]

I'm interested in writing about the brutal social realities. This can be difficult because it involves all manner of prejudice and racism and reveals people's characters without questioning their ethics. There are no whys and wherefores and lets make this a happy ending.

Can you elaborate more? this topic intrigues me.