Words from the bubble

I've lived a pretty sheltered life. Not boring, but really safe. Not that I'm wishing tragedy upon myself. But it seems like somehow I've missed out on a whole culture that my peers all understand so much better than myself. Two topics tend to come up that everyone else seems to know much more about: drugs and crime. Not that I hang around with a bunch of druggies and criminals, but everyone at least has a friend who did this or that. Now, most of the stories are pretty bad. I don't wish tragedy on my friends or acquaintances either. But there are whole categories of culture and slang that I know nothing about. It tends to limit my writing to "safe" middle class type scenarios. Maybe that's not bad, but it's certainly less marketable. I worry about when I will run out of examples of the romantic neurosis of the educated middle class. Is that enough to keep me writing? Even if it is, is it anything that anyone would want to produce?

I wish I wrote meaningful issue plays full of diversity and message, but that's not what comes out of me. I don't believe I should manufacture it. I don't believe that will work. But does that limit my audience. Perhaps. But at least they are my audience. Probably a bunch of over-educated middle class people.