Untouchable Topics

Every writer has to make choices on the topics they write about. There’s only so much time and expertise any writer can have. A writer has to make conscious decisions about the sorts of things he or she will write about and what will be left to others. My own writings focus on subjects such as gaming, life experiences, travel, and various thoughts in my mind. I’ll occasionally dip my toes into other topics, such as politics, but only if I feel I have at least a modest grasp of them. Certain subjects, though, I simply do not feel competent to write about, and I refer to these as Untouchable Topics. One of my Untouchable Topics is sports. Not too long ago my friend Ben over at Free Refills did a series of writing pieces on this year’s French Open tennis tournament. I don’t follow tennis, so I didn’t feel up to the task of even leaving a comment on any of those posts. The best I can hope to do with sports is to write some sort of brief and (hopefully) humorous observation, while leaving serious thought and analysis to more knowledgeable writers. Barring an unexpected rise in my interest in sports, I suspect it will remain an Untouchable Topic for the duration of my writing career, and that’s ok. I don’t need to write about everything, and if I tried I would only destroy myself in the process. That’s not to say I’m not committed to growing as a writer and an individual, but I’m not going to spill ink on things that I can’t effectively speak to at the moment.