CT: On Comfort Zones

So readers, let's talk a little bit today about comfort zones. Specifically, my comfort zones and how I'm taking (sometimes teeny tiny) baby steps to exit my comfort zone and get some new experiences. 

My literal comfort zone is my very, very comfortable bed. Caitlin likes to tease me about this, but I don't care because that's how much I love my bed. I don't know when it happened, but sometime after college I became one of those people that pours over the IKEA catalog for pillows. And then I buy them. So many of them. 

While my bed is awesome, it's really sleep that's my biggest comfort zone. I take after my dad- I'm a girl that likes a nap. A good night's sleep is a big priority on my list, and by that I mean that I much prefer to go to bed at an hour that Caitlin likes to refer to as "grandmotherly". Because I am a much less grumpy human being when I have a lot of sleep under my belt. 

We've all heard the adage, "Write what you know". I used to think that that meant that I had to write about girls growing up in Wyoming in large families, which quite frankly bored me to tears. I'm growing to realize that it actually means that as a writer it helps to know some of the things that you're writing. Not that you have to have experienced everything your characters have, but that it often helps to have some sort of context for the experiences your characters are going through. 

All of that leads to me standing in a crowded, crazy venue on a school night this week listening to Juliette And The Licks shut down the place. I, who identify with little old ladies and drink tea and love naps, I was covered in glitter and neon eyeliner and dancing along with the best of them. And even though I was a freaking zombie the next day at work, I wouldn't have done it any other way. Because I had a blast and I tried something a little different. And I have to be honest, it also felt like just the sort of thing that one of the characters Cait and I have been working on would have loved. So it's cheesy, but I genuinely think that the concert experience from this week will make me a better writer on that project. It will help bring that character to life. 

So that's what I'm going to keep doing, readers. Taking little steps outside my comfort zone, and trying things that might push me to be a better, fuller writer. But first, perhaps a little nap. 

Happy writing!

CT