Two Questions For The Start Of A Writing Project

Two questions worth asking at the start of every writing project, from tweet to blog post to short story to novel.

• Question One: What is the most useful or interesting idea I can put into the world today?
• Question Two: Am I picking the right fight with this piece?

“But Peter,” I hear you argue, “I’m not trying to pick a fight with my writing. I’m trying to write escapist, genre-friendly fiction that’s not trying to challenge anyone and producing blog posts and social media with the goal of selling my books.”

That’s fine. You’ve still picked a fight. The history of escapist and genre-friendly fiction has a long history of works filled with misogyny, classism, and racism, and the decision to follow those tropes without interrogation or question is a choice that reinforces those cultural assumptions. Some readers will follow you on that journey, or enjoy your work despite elements they find uncomfortable. Increasingly, folks will call you out on it, whether it happens at the editorial level or the reader level.

But the truth is this: The fight is going to happen. The fight is always happening. We’ve moved away from the single-narrative culture where such positions are normalised and left unexamined, and into a space where we’ve embraced a culture of complexity and multiplicity.

The goal of the second question isn’t avoiding the fight—it’s making sure you’ve picked the side you really want to be on.