Writing experts like to tell you to “Write What You Know.”
The idea is that, especially for the beginning writer, you should stick to your own experience and build on it–whether it’s fiction or not. If you’re a teenager, for example, you might want to write about high school or the clique at the summer pool . . . but a space-adventure might be a little out of your league. If you’re a hard-working CEO who hasn’t had a vacation in ten years, you’re better off writing about, well, work-related issues than about, say, tips on how to relax.
It’s good advice, really, and hard to argue with exactly because it is good advice. There are so many writing pitfalls scattered along the route, the writing journey is perilous enough. Trying to write about the secrets of the rainforest when you’ve never left Schenectady is going to be challenging … a challenge you might be better off leaving until you’ve got some experience under your belt.
But…
If everybody stuck to this rule, how many great books would still be unwritten? How many murder mysteries do you suppose Agatha Christie actually helped solve? Did Mark Twain ever float down the Mississippi with an escaped slave? (Or visit King Arthur’s court?) And it’s definitely a safe bet that Arthur C. Clarke never travelled through space.
If people literally stuck with what they knew, we’d be awash in (even more) cookbooks and how-to guides, but fiction would be a wasteland. Sure, John Grisham could still write courtroom thrillers, and anyone who’d ever been a teenager could write a high-school coming-of-age story . . . but there would be no Harry Potter. Historical Fiction would only be written by historians so as to be historically accurate. Science Fiction and Fantasy wouldn’t exist at all.
Because–here’s the thing–writing is a creative endeavor. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a novel or if you’re putting together a step-by-step outline on how to groom your dog. The very act of putting words together is a creative act of faith. Faith that they’ll be well-received by their intended audience; faith that they’ll be understood and appreciated; faith that they’ll be entertaining.
Now, that’s a lesson to live . . . or write . . . by.
I’ve always interpreted the maxim ‘write what you know’ a little broader. Christie didn’t commit murder, but she knew small town life backwards, forwards and upside down. She knew the people she based her characters on, and knew what might push them to murder, or to cover that murder up. Mark Twain knew displaced people and the feeling of being on the outside of society. He knew the south better than King Arthur’s Court, which is why Huck Finn is somewhat more famous than that Connecticut Yankee.
Everybody knows pain, anger, fear, loss, joy and lots of other valuable things from a very young age.
Judy H.’s last blog post..Not Dead Yet…
Well, of course, all writing–fiction or non-fiction–is an extrapolation of what we know to be true. The emotions are universal, but the settings are not, and that’s where people get into trouble, I think–when they try to be or know or pretend to know something they don’t. If they’re very good at writing, you might not notice that that person had never actually, say, scaled the Himalayas. Especially if they did their research well. But so many writers–beginners, in particular–don’t yet have that skill, and it often shows.
You put your finger on it in that reply, Deb – research. Writing is creative work, with equal weight on the creative and the work. A C Clarke is a trained physicist and mathmetician. He knows whereof he speaks, and his fiction reflects his expertise. John McDonald messed about with boats, so Travis McGee knows which end is the pointy bit. On the other hand, I despair when I read of the hero disengaging the safety on his revolver. (Revolvers don’t have safeties).
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Einstein said, “Imagination is better than education” 🙂
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Yes, well he was so, so wise…. (grin)
This article really struck home for me. I’ve written a young adult series all about an other galaxy with people just like us. They have totally different technology and experiences.
I have never had to much fun as I did writing this series. It took me to a place that was dangerous and fun. It was about a man’s journey to become the protector of a galaxy. He always had problems and dangers. It was an creative charge. I’ll always be grateful that I experienced.
Thanks, LaRene. To me, that’s one of the best parts about writing–being able to put myself (or, my characters) in completely new situations.