Recently, I was telling my partner about the ups and downs at work. I made some lament at the end about “being in tech.” It’s something he’s heard before because he’s in tech too, we live in the center of tech, and we’re interested in discussing how tech will have long-term effects on human society, for better or for worse. He looked at me and said, “This is all fodder for your stories. Are you writing this down?” And my immediate thought was, “True. But I can’t write about this right now.”
At the same time, I’ve been writing a short story based on my experience growing up in the Bay Area’s competitive school culture, something that I’ve only been able to write now because it’s been several years since I was in that environment. So why can’t I write about tech, but why can I write about growing up in the Bay Area?
Time. It feels better, and more truthful, to write through memories, rather than through detailed accounts of what just happened. When I was just starting to write fiction, I had this urge to collect as many real-life details as possible in order to write a better story. I still find it hard to write about a person I’ve never met or environment I’ve never been in.
But when I wrote this short story about the Bay Area, I pulled most of it from old memories, and reflections on those memories. Time seems to be a natural filter for what was really important about whatever I experienced. I couldn’t remember the color of the walls in my high school classroom, or what exactly my teacher said to me, but I remembered how I felt and what caused it. My memory, when being employed for writing fiction, seems to discard everything except what made me feel strongly, which is what you want in a story anyway. That’s been a big lesson: that it’s not the quantity or correctness of details, but choosing the right details for a story.
Time also creates distance so you can look back on what you were doing with less feeling. If I had to write a story about tech right now, I think it would just devolve into some sad, rant-y autobiography, which no one wants to read. I’d be thinking too much about myself, rather than the character and the story. So that’s why I think I have to wait a while before writing anything about tech.