My favorite essay I've ever written was about a homeless girl who uses sexuality as her redemption. Even though I was on a time crunch, I had fun stepping into a completely separate personality. The narrator is a young partier who uses sex and sarcasm as means of escaping homelessness and desparity. The author is an upper middle-class virgin nerd who has no fear of ever falling into such an unfortunate state. The best part was how easy it felt to slip into character.
When approached with the prompt, I was excited and clueless; how was I supposed to have any idea how to write from the point of view of a homeless person? I considered many options: suicide, generational poverty, begging. No, that wasn't what I was looking for. After a weekend of contemplation, I settled on a character unlike any I'd ever heard of but something that seemed so logical: a young woman, too proud and stupid to call home, who uses her femininity to her greatest advantage. Now, I'm far from that girl, but her vulnerability was universal, showing the subtle connections all humans have in common if we took the time to dig for it.
People always say write what you know--it's more authentic. I say write what you don't--it shows the authenticity you wouldn't expect.
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