What Do You Know

Write what you know. How many times have you heard this one? And how many times have you actually followed it?

For me, this has often been an excuse to research something new. Last weekend, it was military special ops teams. I honestly don't know why that one suddenly popped into my head but it did. I've always found the big tough semi-bad boys very appealing. Too bad you don't get a lot of them where I'm from or I might not be approaching yet another birthday as a single lady. *sigh* Oh well, such are the trials and tribulations of life.

So why am I on this topic today? Because it suddenly dawned on me that one thing I know is the industry I work in. It's not unusual for me to get story ideas at work but usually it's me daydreaming about being somewhere else. Today I passed a guy in another department I work with and the expression on his face was one of secrets. Again, not unusual as we have access to a lot of information (we are an information technology services area) which we have to keep until tight security. But that expression just triggered something in me. He'd probably find this funny, but I started thinking what if he was an undercover agent of some sort? What if he'd taken that job to get in a position to investigate some nefarious doing of our executives? Or anyone in our company for that matter. Our area would be perfect for that. Of course, we have training classes on spotting and reporting such bad deeds which may have also prompted the thoughts. I'm behind on updating my certification in those classes.

So, I found myself actually writing about something I know and didn't have to go research. The only time I spent on the Internet today at work was over lunch coming up with names for the six characters I've already sketched out. No surprise, 3 of those 6 are based off actual co-workers and what they do. But the guy who set all this off is not in the story. Perhaps I should give him a cameo as a thank you.

Keep reading.
SK