CHART OF WRITER EXPERIENCE

YEARS YOU'VE BEEN WRITING	SUBJECT MATTER IT'S SAFE TO WRITE ABOUT
0-1	- personal experience - self help - romance - light fantasy - superhero - action - quirky comedy - coffee table nonsense - slasher horror - beast horror - ghost-written political biographies - high school hijinx or high school drama - dystopia - anything women would describe as "cute" - boring drama that so closely mirrors your personal life that the creative work you have to do is essentially nonexistant - lies
1-2	all of the above plus: - thriller - any other drama - dark comedy - most sci-fi - dark fantasy
2-3	all of the above plus: - period fiction - historical fiction - biography -hard sci-fi (above subjects require extensive research) - paranormal horror
3-4	all of the above plus: - war - allegory - heist - stories where the protagonist has cancer, is mentally disabled, has Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or AIDS - content where the protagonist is some kind of non-writer artist (painter, musician, etc.)
4-7	all of the above plus: - stories that can't be presented in anything close to chronological order to be effective
7-10	all of the above plus: - writing itself / writers (no one wants to hear about writers writing about writing unless they are also a writer who likes to write about writing)
10-25	all of the above plus: - dreams
25+	all of the above plus: - time travel (one exception: you're a scientist who has invented time travel - then you can write about it whenever you damn well please (this is my theory behind the creation of Primer)