Thanks Scott, this is exactly what I needed today.

Funny you post this today. For the first time ever, I'm writing an intensely personal story. Not autobiographical, just personal.

The process started about a week ago when I met up with a friend of mine who also writes. I told him about this script I was going to start working on, which was a sci-fi with lots of action and very commercial. He asked me what the personal connection was. I told him the particular aspect of the plot I liked best.

HIS REPLY: Okay. I get that you're intellectually interested in it, but what's the personal angle?

ME: I've always liked stories about tooth-and-nail struggles.

HIM: Okay. But that's still an intellectual connection.

ME: The willingness to do anything to survive is a great, primal theme.

HIM: Alright. But still intellectual. What does it make you feel?

Everyone should be so lucky to have a writer friend to push them like that. After a few more rounds, I finally got it. The story didn't make me feel anything.

So took stock of my life and drifted around the apartment thinking about what I might possibly have to say and completely surrendering to all the feelings that came up... and after a weekend of that, something amazing happened. I've had a story concept I've been carrying with me for about six months but had no plot and never cracked it - never even tried to. It was one of those "wouldn't it be cool" ideas you don't take seriously. After that weekend of pondering life and what I might possibly have to say, it became clear as a bell. That strange little story was the story I needed to be writing. The plot hatched that night and the damn thing cracked open like an egg.

I've been working on it steadily for three days. It's been exhausting. The cat thinks I'm nuts because I go from crying uncontrollably to dancing around the apartment in my bathrobe to quiet weeping over my keyboard. I'm lackluster and hopped up at the same time. But it's a good feeling in its own way, too - more like being pulled along than having to push.

Anyway, write a personal story or find the personal angle and rock that. It's another way to say write what you know.