Write About What You Know

[Dolores Esteban]

Write about what you know — that’s one of the fundamental nuggets of wisdom for writers. “But I don’t know anything worth writing about!” you protest. You don’t? Anything is worth writing about if the writer finds something engaging about the subject.

 

An article by Mark Nichol. I tried out several of the tips and I found them very helpful. Thought I share the link.

 

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-experiential-writing-prompts/

 

 

 

[Ieshwar]

Excellent tips for writers who are facing a block or who are trying to find inspiration.

 

One that I often try is listening to a particular type of music and build a certain atmosphere with a strong emotion (can be love, angst or even sadness). And then, weave out a story using that one emotion. It works for small stories, like short stories and flash fiction centered around one emotion. 

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Cheers

Ieshwar

 

P.S I have to say it. I LOVE your avatar/pic. It's so beautiful.

[Dolores Esteban]

Yes, I love to experiment with music also. I sometimes listen to the same song over and over again while writing.

 

-----------------------

P.S I have to say it. I LOVE your avatar/pic. It's so beautiful.

 

Thank you.

 

I love your writing. Glad you're back.

[The Pecman]

I think sometimes, writing about what you don't know can also force you to stretch your muscles and widen your horizons. The first novel I wrote was semi-autobiographical, stretching the truth at times but certainly about a time and a place I knew very well. The second time, I decided to write about characters I knew nothing about: a privileged closeted teen athlete in a wealthy family who winds up getting blackmailed at a contemporary private school. All of it wound up forcing me to do a lot of research, but I got the vast majority of the details right.

 

My current main project is a time-travel/sci-fi piece about a contemporary teenager who's out, reasonably happy with his life, who falls through a time portal and winds up back in 1864 and falls in love. Again, it's required tons of research to get the little subtle details right (for example: who knew there were no shoelaces in 1864, and no zippers until the turn of the century), but it's been an interesting ride. Finding a way to make this believable has been a constant struggle, but since we see the experience through the contemporary kid's eyes, that handles the exposition without making it too heavy-handed or obvious.

 

So I think sometimes, this is a rule that can be broken. Or at least, if you can't write what you know... then learn about what you don't know and then write about it!

[Sasha Distan]

I think you have to get a great mix of the two. there is no point about writing only what you know. there must be "Adventure!" well, not necessarily  but you get the idea.

 

on the other hand all my best stories have been closely linked to the things i like best. being outside with dogs and horses, books, music, all that good stuff.

Hell, half my teenage character go to the college i spent two years at. some of them went there while we were there which made exams interesting...

 

I like the article though, thanks for the share.

[Blackman]

I've found this to be true enough in school.  Often enough I had to do my homework to become an expert in the field about which I was writing.  Not knowing shines through too easily and becoming an expert takes less time than fixing something that just doesn't sound right.

[The Pecman]

I've found this to be true enough in school.  Often enough I had to do my homework to become an expert in the field about which I was writing.  Not knowing shines through too easily and becoming an expert takes less time than fixing something that just doesn't sound right.

 

Nothing's worse than getting an email from a reader who says, "hey! You got such-and-such fact wrong in your story! You don't know shit!" That's rough. All you can do is sigh, admit they're right, fix the problem, thank them, and move on.

[Thorn Wilde]

I think it's all in how you interpret the phrase. Neil Gaiman posted the following on his blog ten years ago:

 

 

The phrase 'only write what you know' is continually being drummed into my head by my Creative Writing tutors at University. It's my final year and we have to write 7000 words of publishable quality. I've only just turned 20. I don't know anything. And on an even worse note, I have days when I *think* I know everything. How am I supposed to write when I know nothing and everything, and only have a few months in which to figure it all out? -Reen 

Only write what you know is very good advice. I do my best to stick to it. I wrote about gods and dreams and America because I knew about them. And I wrote about what it's like to wander into Faerie because I knew about that. I wrote about living underneath London because I knew about that too. And I put people into the stories because I knew them: the ones with pumpkins for heads, and the serial killers with eyes for teeth, and the little chocolate people filled with raspberry cream making love, and the rest of them. 

You've had twenty years of living, and dreaming. You probably have a fair idea of what it's like to experience emotions, and to go places, and to do things, and to change. You've wondered about things you don't know. You've guessed. You've hoped. You've probably lied -- oddly enough, similar skills to those you'll have used in convincing a teacher that you actually did do your homework, but it was stolen by an escaped convict dressed as a nun, will come in useful in writing fiction. Ditto for the skills involved in writing a passing grade essay on something you know absolutely nothing about. Relax. Fake it. Mean it. 

And you don't need to figure it all out before you start writing. You can figure it out while you're writing. Or you can fail to figure it out; that's allowed too. 

 

If people only wrote about things that they knew absolutely there would be no fantasy or science fiction. How could you write about time travel? You've never time traveled, it's impossible! Women would also not be able to write from male characters' point of view, and men couldn't write from women's point of view. Gay writers couldn't write straight characters and straight writers couldn't write gay characters.

 

But what you know is relative. Just knowing a little about something goes a long way, and sometimes all you need is to be able to imagine it. Basic empathy is enough to be able to put yourself in the shoes of a character that's nothing like you. Dreaming about a different planet is enough to be able to write about it. Research is important, for sure. But you can learn while you write. 

[RobsWriting]

I've never been able to shake the feeling that it's a good guide to follow, but that's all it is: a guide, not a rule. In my stories, if I had to visit every location that the characters do in order to write about what I know, I would never get any writing done. What I do perform is an awful lot of research. The Internet is a very powerful tool for finding out information and is one which I draw on regularly. I also exploit Google Earth to the limits when it comes to digitally stepping into places and taking a virtual tour. Occasionally I will also do some "field research" and actually go to the places, particularly if I am struggling with a scene. I think what helps me is to remember that you are only creating the illusion of a place, not building the place for real, so you can be afforded some artistic licence.

Edited May 19, 2013 by RobsWriting

[stephanie l danielson]

I absolutely agree with this. As for topics, I go with work inspirations, life, sports I love, etc. Currently I'm writing about music, bands, and have another planned about figure skating. Anything out there is fodder.

[The Pecman]

I've never been able to shake the feeling that it's a good guide to follow, but that's all it is: a guide, not a rule. In my stories, if I had to visit every location that the characters do in order to write about what I know, I would never get any writing done. What I do perform is an awful lot of research. The Internet is a very powerful tool for finding out information and is one which I draw on regularly.

 

Yes, I agree very much with this. It does help to physically visit a specific location if you have little details in it, like a famous coffee shop on the corner, or the fact that the street is one-way, or how a side-road is cobblestone but the main drag is paved. But generally, the internet and Google street view will get you by... to a point.

 

I was stalled out for a year or two on a time-travel novel sometime back, and one thing that helped snap me out of it was that through circumstance I wound up working on a Western movie set here in LA, with about 10 fully-formed 1800's city streets. I think this kind of kicked me in the ass, because I finally got the experience of how muddy the streets were 150 years ago, what the sidewalks felt like to walk on, what the doors were like, and so on, and I think this helped push me over the edge to finish the novel. Watching a movie or looking at still photographs is not the same experience as feeling and smelling the place.

 

This knowledge also extends to certain abilities the characters have, like whether they can sing, play an instrument, ride a horse, shoot a gun, etc.  I can't necessarily do any of these things well, but I think as long as you can describe the sensation of doing these, you can create the illusion that you know what it's like. Famously, Stephen King has said he has never actaully killed anybody, but he has done enough research and visited morgues to the point where he gets all the little details right. To me, pulling that off is like being a magician on stage: you believe it when he does it, but then later on, you realize, "wait a minute! I think I was fooled!"

Edited May 27, 2013 by The Pecman