Tell the truest story you know

I think William Zinsser was the one who said to aspiring writers, “Begin by writing the truest sentence you know.” The same can be said to aspiring photographers or to anyone who is stuck, “Begin by taking the truest photograph you know.” So that can mean taking a photo of something mundane in your life that you wouldn’t normally care to think about. This alone can break the inertia of someone who thinks she has no story to tell, and who thus doesn’t begin. Your story, no matter how boring, how ordinary, is not boring or ordinary to me if it is true. And it can’t be boring to me since I haven’t lived your life.

So tell the truest story you know, or at least begin from there.