Serendipity: Listening for the Language In Your Head
Sojourner K. Rolle

Write about what you know about -- the people, the places, the culture, the customs, your family, the macrocosm, the microcosm.

I often say that writers come to recognize their own place in the history of their surroundings. We become scribes for our selves, our families, our communities, our region and. in many ways, our generation. Writers often present their own impressions of the world but I believe we write most authentically about that of which we are a part and those from whom we spring. The late August Wilson, who wrote poetry and short stories before he became one of America's most celebrated playwrights, listened to stories and experiences of people he met in the streets of Pittsburg. He hung out in coffee shops and neighborhood bars engaging in conversation with the patrons, hearing their cadences and expressions, as they told him their stories. We all carry the repositories of our entire lives from which to draw authentic voices and multi-dimensional landscapes.