Finding an Original Subject (Ch. 2)

"The things you are, the scars you bear, the experience and insider's knowledge you bring to a subject--all are part of your credentials." --Philip Gerard, from Creative Nonfiction, page 24

As a writer, you bring yourself into whatever you write. Especially in the creative nonfiction genre, it's important to put yourself into whatever subject you're writing about; that's one of the ways that we can distinguish between our genre and just plain old journalism. And you can use all the things that you've seen and learned in life to give you authority over certain things that you write about; you have the right to explore, research, and learn about that subject, as a writer and as a person who has lived through something related to that subject.