Hello, writers. The internets in upstate NY are very whack due to the latest rounds of flooding... this is my sixth time trying to post this... here goes.
Tonight’s topic is that ancient bit of writing advice, write what you know.
The topic was suggested by Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, who has this to say about it:
We've all seen examples of the male writer who can't write convincing female characters, or the white writer who creates Savages or Noble Savages. [Person] got in a furious argument with a friend who wrote a piece about a woman in a coma. [Person] has actually been in a coma, and the writer got it all wrong. She went so far as to say that no one should write about things that they haven't experienced.
I think that's going too far. Fiction, done well, is about empathy for someone whose life you haven't experienced. I got an entire story out of a particular aspect of Catholicism that probably wouldn't have interested me if I were Catholic. But I took the trouble to research it and then get feedback from my Catholic-raised spouse. I've written characters who were space travelers, white supremacists, and nuns. I hold with those who say "Write what you know, or are willing to learn."
Well said. (Hope you don't mind my added anonymizing, Tara.)
I’d even go one step further than Tara and say “Don’t write what you know. Write what you want to know.”
Obviously, if people only wrote what they knew, whole genres would cease to exist.
And, all right, of course you can write what you know if you want to. But it’s pretty easy to screw this up, too. Ever read a self-published novel by a doctor or lawyer about some arcane bit of medicine or law that s/he finds fascinating? Often the writer seems either unable to explain what s/he knows, or insists on explaining it as if the reader had, at best, a third grade education. In writing what you know, you have to judge the readers’ probable background knowledge very accurately. You also have to be able to present what bothers, excites, worries or amuses you in such a way that it can be appreciated by somebody who doesn’t have your background.
And you have to do all that in as few words as possible.
It’s easier to write what you want to know.
And really want to know it—whether it’s what it would be like to find out you were a wizard, or to be blind and lost on a battlefield, or to be a black in the Jim Crow South, or to suddenly decide you wanted to resign from a top-secret doomsday militia group. Set out to find out, both by writing your way into the situation and by research.
Some ways to research that work really well:
Handicaps—Try out your character’s handicap. Take it out for a spin. Blindfold yourself. Rent a wheelchair. In two of Megan Whelan Turner’s books, the protag has only one hand, and it’s quite clear from reading them that the author spent some time pretending to have only one hand.
One thing you’ll learn from doing this, which most authors don’t seem to know: Children stare. Adults look right through you.
(For a real shock, watch what happens if you fall down.)
Changing your race, sex and/or sexual orientation— Years ago, a kid at a camp where I worked told me that the other kids wouldn’t play with her because she was black. I tried to interest the other counselors in the problem. They all said the girl was just imagining it.
Their reasoning was the same as some writers’ reasoning: I don’t mistreat black people, and therefore nobody mistreats black people. (Or Asians, or women, or gays, or… you get the idea.) Certainly my characters don’t mistreat ‘em. Everything’s dandy.
Two good ways to research this (if you can’t disguise yourself as your target race or sex-- difficult for most people):
1. Believe what people of that race or sex have been telling you all your life. If it doesn’t seem to match your own observations, find out why not.
2. Get someone from your target race or sex to read your manuscript and tell you if you’ve got it right. (If you find yourself extremely reluctant to do that, then alas… you probably haven’t got it right.)
(As for getting sexual orientation right, I’d welcome anyone else’s comments on that because I only seem to have gotten it wrong.)
Moving yourself into the past
Read books. Go to museums, especially open-air history museums where they’ll let you do stuff. Travel to the place you’re writing about if you can; take along a map of what it looked like in the time you’re writing about. Take notes using all five senses.
Try to get yourself into the mindset of the people of that time. Their opinions would probably offend you. Too bad: they had ‘em. And they disagreed with each other about them. Sometimes at the cost of their lives.
Beware of the remarkable… it may have made the history books but have had little influence on people’s lives. Don’t assume that because something existed at the time, your characters knew about it or talked about it.
And, if your target time is recent enough that there are still a few survivors around… have one of ‘em read your manuscript.
Going to Wizarding Land
Obviously you can’t get this wrong except by making it unconvincing. Beware of white space: blank stone walls, endless deserts, empty castles . Fill everything in: all five senses. Know where bread comes from and what houses are built out of, how, and by whom. Know all the intimate details of how your world works… and then be prepared to leave most of them out.
In General
Interview people! That’s what Tara’s MIL’s friend should’ve done. Interview an ER nurse, a native of Niger, a cop, a person who’s been in a coma, a hunter-gatherer, a nun. Find someone who’s got the goods.
Try it yourself. Put yourself, physically, in the position you’ve just put your poor character in—can he really brandish a sword while carrying his stout companion on his back and the Jewel of Togwogmagog in his teeth? When she’s being dangled by the hair over a pit of vipers, will she really be able to turn and glare at her captor?
Any other suggestions?
Tonight’s challenge:
Remember the callow youth? For those who came in late:
A callow youth (male or female) is the Chosen One who must obtain the sacred jewel of Togwogmagog in order to save the kingdom.
Okay, so your Callow Youth is en route to the sacred jewel when s/he runs into an obstacle… an obstacle that you know very, very well from your life experience. The obstacle can be a person, an attitude, a rule, a geographical feature… anything. It can come from your religion, your region, your culture, your graduate thesis, your job, but whatever it is, it’s in the CY’s way, and s/he needs to get past it.
Make sure we understand what the obstacle is and why it's an obstacle, but don't overexplain it.
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