I assume you know who the singer Billie Eilish is. You know the eighteen-year-old girl who recently won five Grammys. I am a rather big fan of her music, so occasionally I watch her interviews on Youtube. During one interview, in particular, with For the Record she said something that really stuck with me: “You don’t have to go through anything to write about it, or you could go through everything and write about something else” When you think about this it really makes sense because any kind of art is based on your own creativity. So you can create your own fantasy or ideas then translate it into any type of medium.
Continuing with this idea, I am in an introduction to poetry writing class and my professor said something very similar to our class. To sum it up he said that you didn’t have to go through something traumatic or heartbreaking to write about it. You didn’t have to experience anything to write about it; just be able to use your imagination. If you think about it isn’t that what creativity is all about? The ability to use your imagination… so why shouldn’t that apply to things like songwriting and poetry?
I know for me learning this and putting forth this idea has really helped me grow as an artist. For my poetry class, I turned in a poem that I wrote in the perspective of a devil worshipper… I am not one. Then another poem I turned in I wrote from the point of view of a frat guy who abuses girls. Once again I am clearly not that, but just because that isn’t who I am or close to anything I have experienced in life doesn’t mean I can’t write about it.
So, as a society, we need to realize that we can write and create anything we want when it comes to art forms. Just because you didn’t experience doesn’t mean you cannot write about it.