"Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start"
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A bracing piece of craft advice masquerading as plain talk: you do not “take off” on talent alone. You take off when you lock onto material that has traction. Morgan frames subject matter the way a soldier might frame terrain. The problem isn’t bravery, it’s position. Until a young writer knows what ground to hold, the prose can march in place.
The shrewdness is in the word “find.” It implies that subjects aren’t invented so much as recognized, claimed, and returned to. That subtly rebukes the romantic myth of the writer as pure originality machine. Morgan’s counsel is almost tactical: start where you have intel. “Almost everyone has a family” isn’t sentimental; it’s democratic and slightly unsparing. Family is the one institution you don’t have to qualify for, and that makes it both accessible and unavoidable. It’s also a laboratory of character: power, loyalty, shame, humor, silence. Built-in stakes, built-in contradictions.
Under the surface, there’s a warning: family stories are not automatically good stories. They’re merely available, and availability is a discipline problem as much as an artistic gift. Starting with family is a way to bypass the paralysis of trying to be impressive and instead be specific. For a soldier of Morgan’s era, “take off” also carries a faint echo of escape velocity: writing as a route out of anonymity, maybe out of whatever you inherited. Family becomes the first map because it’s the first pressure system you survived.
The shrewdness is in the word “find.” It implies that subjects aren’t invented so much as recognized, claimed, and returned to. That subtly rebukes the romantic myth of the writer as pure originality machine. Morgan’s counsel is almost tactical: start where you have intel. “Almost everyone has a family” isn’t sentimental; it’s democratic and slightly unsparing. Family is the one institution you don’t have to qualify for, and that makes it both accessible and unavoidable. It’s also a laboratory of character: power, loyalty, shame, humor, silence. Built-in stakes, built-in contradictions.
Under the surface, there’s a warning: family stories are not automatically good stories. They’re merely available, and availability is a discipline problem as much as an artistic gift. Starting with family is a way to bypass the paralysis of trying to be impressive and instead be specific. For a soldier of Morgan’s era, “take off” also carries a faint echo of escape velocity: writing as a route out of anonymity, maybe out of whatever you inherited. Family becomes the first map because it’s the first pressure system you survived.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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