I was raised in the school of sink or swim. Luckily, I'm a good swimmer. I credit this to the ability to write well. It's not merely about stringing sentences together that make sense. It's about crafting a narrative that people can both understand and grasp even if the specifics are oftentimes above their heads. It's about understanding not merely the material that one has been asked to convey, but about knowing the audience and their desire for a good story or, in many cases, a few interesting pieces of information they can relay to others. Since switching gears from literary fiction to copywriting several years ago, I've been asked to become an instant expert in fields as varied and complex as medicine, law, engineering, risk management and real estate development (among others). The task can oftentimes seem insurmountable. However, I've found that I have successfully been able to learn about and to convert developments in these fields of knowledge to publishable material if I simply focus on telling an engaging story. While a strong background in research and philosophy may help me weather the difficulties in digesting these difficult subjects, it is my years of writing fiction that have allowed me to stay afloat.