But you know, who am I?

A damn fine writer.

Thank you. But I'm not an expert in anything but the freakshow that is my life. Which to be fair intersects with disability experience, women's studies, and more tangentially mental illness and the legal system(those are not really my experiences just family ones) I know tiny things about a lot of things, and two sets of fandom kerfuffles. And dirty words in three languages and counting.(four if you count UK English as seperate)

Still, if you are lucky enough to know the kind of thing you want to write about, go for it. It might not make you any money (or it might), but it will keep you happier.

I think I need to be writing something. When I stopped, it was because I was hoping I'd be dead soon. Even then, I started some beautiful suicide notes. Of course, that's all in the lede. "By the time you'll read this, I'll be dead" may be considered hack by some, but it's a classic for a reason, imo.(Can you believe people think my queries are too intense? Where do they get off?)...I'm kidding. I never put that in. But it's true that "want" is only part of the deal.

Wow, too dark? "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how'd you like the play?" (writes GWW on the Board. In black, cause I did it. Threadicide.)

Note that Hildebrandt chose a historical case for which she could research, research, research all without leaving home.

I think I need to be writing something.

Total agreement and thread resuscitation.

If you had to be an expert to write about something, I'd be in trouble. You only have to know how to research and how to string words together in an interesting way. We all know you can do the latter, and that's actually a pretty rare talent. I've found that being too much of an expert can almost be a hindrance in popular writing. It's easy to forget what the average reader doesn't know. Also, most of the articles I've done in the past five years have been based solely on research and telephone interviews.

For me it is almost a biological function(Hopefully prettier.) But if it stops, that is Very Very Bad, in terms of my life and how's it going, and all that. Or as one of Philip Roth's writer characters said(paraphrased): "This is my life. I write a sentence. Then I write another sentence. Then, I move them around. Then, I have lunch. And if I were a gorilla in the zoo, people would think it's cruel if I didn't have a tire to swing off of, or a little mate in here with me. But I don't."

erika, what Ginger said: pick the case, do the research online and by making your local sources cough up (threaten 'em with the ADA if they balk), and write your book. It would be better than damned near anything out there.

Confession? I love Ludovic Kennedy's Ten Rillington Place. Doesn't get much darker than having the actual killer be the star witness for the prosecution against the wrong man, whom they execute by mistake...