Are You Ready to Write About That?

Here’s my criterion on whether or not to write about painful, personal experiences

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

Whether you’ve been writing for a day or a decade, you’ve probably run across this popular advice: write about what you know. We’re told to dig deep and share our experiences, our struggles, our lives.

Personally, I’ve found this to be true, especially here on Medium. Stories where I share intimate encounters and painful situations are very often the ones that receive the most engagement.

They’re the stories others can relate to and empathize with. They resonate with my readers and often touch something inside of them, as they correlate my experiences and emotions with a time in their own lives where they felt something similar.

Of course, not every experience is, or should be, up for public consumption.

I’ve struggled with this myself, and have come up with a couple of parameters to gauge whether or not I’m ready to write about a particular personal experience.

Basic Benchmarks

Every person, and every experience is, of course, different. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to writing (or much else in life).