Everything is copy.

Everything is copy.

I recently watched the documentary titled for Nora Ephron’s well-known motto, “Everything is copy.” The film was directed by her son, Jacob Bernstein. Jacob’s father is the famous Carl Bernstein, arguably best known for his partnership with Bob Woodward and their investigative journalism surrounding the Watergate scandal.

Jacob clearly was raised by people well-steeped in the craft of writing in multiple forms. But Nora’s phrase, “Everything is copy,” is one that many have adopted for their own writing. Whether as inspiration for characters or events in novels or directly in the creation of memoirs or personal essays, digging into one’s own experience can be like digging into a treasure trove. Nora was of the belief and practice that anything she experienced was fair game to show up in her writing – whether the experience was her own or something related to her by someone she knew.

 Whether you’re on a deadline or just fighting the dreaded writer’s block and need to get something, anything down on paper, take a look around you. Writer about what’s in your room. Write about what’s on your desk. Write about the coffee mug that still has some dregs left in the bottom. Think about a place you used to live and write about what you remember of it. Try to describe it physically, emotionally, through your senses. How big was it? What color? How did it smell? Did the wind regularly rattle the windows? Did the settling foundation creak and whine every night? Everything is copy. Everything is an opportunity to write.

Heck, what was the last documentary you saw. Write about that. Just write.