Write What You’ve Learned
Learning from experience is always a choice.
Earlier I wrote that the difference between observation and experience is often a matter of choice. You cannot orchestrate the actions of others or arrange a natural setting to your tastes, but usually we choose our experiences. No one climbs a mountain by accident. Until they do.
Sometimes experiences befall us, whether we welcome them or not. Illness, accidents, crime, unemployment, a failure of some kind. Our mishaps may result from our choices, but we rarely choose the bad outcome on purpose. Occasionally, we may even stumble into good fortune and that too can seem random.
Whether and what we learn from these experiences is always a choice.
Experience
Experience is our best teacher, we are told. Learn from failure. Learn from your mistakes. This is good advice. While we often repeat our mistakes and failures, none of us enjoy the process. But we also have good learning experiences, when we solve a problem, handle a crisis, or succeed in an endeavor. Sometimes it is easier to remember what not to do than to figure out what we did well, but the information is there. You have likely had good learning experiences from talking to people, reading, listening, researching, studying, and taking classes.
Brainstorm what you’ve learned. Think of mistakes you made. “I’ll never do that again!” is a great place to start, but don’t stop there. Look backwards to examine what led you to the mistake. Did you lack a life skill, such as open communication? Did you rely on bad advice? Did you doubt yourself? Go into as much detail as you can. Why did you take that bad advice? Did your gut tell you it was bad when you heard it? Who or what taught you to doubt yourself?
You’re allowed to write about these things. The result might be something less than a full story but something more than a journal entry. Try not to paint yourself as the victim, but also don’t beat yourself up for making mistakes. Do your best to maintain a neutral tone as you write. Stick to facts.
Consider your successes as well. Have you experienced moments when good planning paid off or you took a calculated risk that proved the right one? What risk did you take? Who supported you or didn’t? Did you have to make an emotional leap of faith, for example by trusting your gut or some untested skill? Maybe you overcame negative thinking or a poor belief. You might have learned that trusting your skills and experience leads to better outcomes than being modest about your accomplishments. What steps did you take? What were the crossroads? What might have happened if you chose the other path? What obstacles did you face?
You can also learn by observing human nature in others. Perhaps you have learned that people would rather be told an affirming lie than a truth that might call into question what they believe. You may have noticed that some people will work very hard to avoid a task, when actually doing the task would have taken less time and energy, and created a better outcome. A fairly common observation about human nature is that we often accuse another person of what we are guilty of.
Some of what you learn about human nature will be specific to a few or even one person. Sometimes, you will discover a truism that you believe defines human existence. Write them down. When you write your stories, these observations of the human experience will help you develop character and theme.
Study
You also have likely taken a more active hand in learning by reading, researching, or taking a class. This calls back a bit to write what you know – hard facts, information you could teach to someone else – but also, you should take note of what you would like to learn.
Do you have any curiosity about the natural world, geography, history, politics, languages, carpentry, physics, race car driving? Make a list and spend some time doing that, and then write about it. Yes, this sounds like homework, but most writing is essentially homework, so you should become accustomed to it.
You don’t have to write a thesis paper or book report. Write about your interest in the topic and where you found new information and what surprised or intrigued you. Write as if you were telling an interested friend about what you discovered. In addition to being good practice, writing about what you’ve learned is an excellent way of committing the information to memory.
What you’ve learned this way often goes into creating verisimilitude in your writing, the internal consistency and believability that helps your readers suspend their disbelief. If it is important that your protagonist has carpentry skills, you might buy books, watch instructional videos, take a class, or talk to experts. Be wary of writing what you don’t know or winging it.
Whatever you write, have fun with it. As you begin writing, you are embarking on a journey of continuous learning. Every piece you write will present its own challenges. Every story, setting, character, and theme will be different from the last.
If you approach learning as a joyful pursuit, you will never have a day of drudgery.