Writing What You Know
Whenever you hear people talk about writing, they always give the same bloody advice: "write what you know". Well, I've been writing since I was about eleven and there's a problem with that advice. I'm not sure if many people have spotted it, so I'm just going to spell it out with a question.
How much did you know when you were eleven about the real world?
Yeah.
It's a bit of a problem. You can't write about what you know if you don't know a whole lot. So... I made stuff up. I wrote about what I thought I knew. I wrote a fairy-tale-like thing when I was nine called "Rosa the Knight" using Storybook Weaver. That was fun.
I've always made up little stories and dramas in my head. In the beginning, I dramatized them for myself using Barbie dolls. Then I would play pretend using the mental stories with my cousins in the creek behind our house. It's amazing what 3 bored ten- to twelve-year-olds and a little sister several years younger with their imaginations and a creek can come up with. It's one thing I admire about the work of Hayao Miyazaki. He can encompass the imagination of children without talking down to said children.
But that's a tangent. This is about writing what you know.
As I got older, I learned more about the real world and I feel like I have a leg to stand on when I sit down to write and think "Write what you know". I know the world can be cruel. I know that you need to have a well-paying job if you want to do anything in life. I know that for those jobs you have to make a lot of sacrifices. I know that I actually had it pretty easy growing up. I also learned that I know a lot more about people than I ever wanted to or thought I needed to. I also know a lot of random information... which actually helps me with writing even more.
Actually, the fact that I get on a kick and tend to get obsessed with various subjects really helps with writing. So, my vampire obsession when I was in high school isn't very useful in the real world, but in the world of writing I could have a society of different kinds of vampires who all look down on each other based on which legend they stem from... and all of the vampires could look down upon the Bram Stoker version of vampires (and really hate the Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer types). Or, my Robin Hood obsession could aid me in writing a period piece tied up in the goings on of the English court in the 1100s. Or, my fixation on colors could lead me to revolutionizing the way people view color-coding various types of magic. OR....
This sort of ties into my "Writer's Life" post. Because the more you live, the more you know about life and the more you can write really good things that people can relate to. Get it?
However, there's a gray area when it comes to fantasy. Yes, writing what you know helps a lot with inventing fantasy lands. You can't write about people riding horses for days on end if you don't know the basics of caring for horses because then the equestrians of the world will stand up and scream, "ZOMBIE HORSES" in unison. Heck, my mom just likes horses and she got mad at the end of Hildago because the horse should've died for some reason. I don't know. My only interest in horses has been as they relate to centaurs and unicorns and pegasi.
Then again, maybe your fantasy land doesn't have horses, maybe they have drackmars which are like horses crossed with ostriches (I'm making this up as I go along), then you just have to know what a drackmar looks like and the rules for handling a drackmar and you've sidestepped the horse issue.
Now this is where suddenly knowing more about people than I thought I needed to comes in.
Doesn't matter if you're writing fantasy or realistic fiction, no matter what, the people and their interactions have to feel real. If they don't, then the whole story just... fails. Or at least that's how it is for me. If characters are supposed to be wacky and different (like Baccano!), that's one thing. Even in Baccano!'s case, the setting was realistic, just everything else was wacky and tilted to the left... including about half of the characters. However, if everything's wacky, including the setting and the story's all cock-eyed, then I don't want to read that mess because it's probably the worst kind of mind-screw. A story always, always, always needs an anchoring point. A point that you can measure the rest of the wackiness by otherwise it just doesn't make any sense and why am I reading this madness I need a break.
And then, the author has lost the reader and the reader/viewer will not return. Ever.
For me, that anchoring point is people. Not just people, but the people I know best. Who do I know best right now? My family and friends. So, they are getting written into my stories. I hope it works out and soon I'll have a full length novel ready to be published, but right now I'm working on rewriting the first draft and I'm having issues. Then there's the story of Melissa Miller which will be on a blog eventually. Maybe in the next couple of weeks. Maybe in the next month.
Just remember, write what you know. Even if you don't know much. Have at least one thing to anchor your reader or you'll have them swallowed by chaos.
And Sweet Dreams.
How much did you know when you were eleven about the real world?
Yeah.
It's a bit of a problem. You can't write about what you know if you don't know a whole lot. So... I made stuff up. I wrote about what I thought I knew. I wrote a fairy-tale-like thing when I was nine called "Rosa the Knight" using Storybook Weaver. That was fun.
I've always made up little stories and dramas in my head. In the beginning, I dramatized them for myself using Barbie dolls. Then I would play pretend using the mental stories with my cousins in the creek behind our house. It's amazing what 3 bored ten- to twelve-year-olds and a little sister several years younger with their imaginations and a creek can come up with. It's one thing I admire about the work of Hayao Miyazaki. He can encompass the imagination of children without talking down to said children.
But that's a tangent. This is about writing what you know.
As I got older, I learned more about the real world and I feel like I have a leg to stand on when I sit down to write and think "Write what you know". I know the world can be cruel. I know that you need to have a well-paying job if you want to do anything in life. I know that for those jobs you have to make a lot of sacrifices. I know that I actually had it pretty easy growing up. I also learned that I know a lot more about people than I ever wanted to or thought I needed to. I also know a lot of random information... which actually helps me with writing even more.
Actually, the fact that I get on a kick and tend to get obsessed with various subjects really helps with writing. So, my vampire obsession when I was in high school isn't very useful in the real world, but in the world of writing I could have a society of different kinds of vampires who all look down on each other based on which legend they stem from... and all of the vampires could look down upon the Bram Stoker version of vampires (and really hate the Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer types). Or, my Robin Hood obsession could aid me in writing a period piece tied up in the goings on of the English court in the 1100s. Or, my fixation on colors could lead me to revolutionizing the way people view color-coding various types of magic. OR....
Random information + "Write what you know" = A LOT of ideas
This sort of ties into my "Writer's Life" post. Because the more you live, the more you know about life and the more you can write really good things that people can relate to. Get it?
However, there's a gray area when it comes to fantasy. Yes, writing what you know helps a lot with inventing fantasy lands. You can't write about people riding horses for days on end if you don't know the basics of caring for horses because then the equestrians of the world will stand up and scream, "ZOMBIE HORSES" in unison. Heck, my mom just likes horses and she got mad at the end of Hildago because the horse should've died for some reason. I don't know. My only interest in horses has been as they relate to centaurs and unicorns and pegasi.
Then again, maybe your fantasy land doesn't have horses, maybe they have drackmars which are like horses crossed with ostriches (I'm making this up as I go along), then you just have to know what a drackmar looks like and the rules for handling a drackmar and you've sidestepped the horse issue.
Now this is where suddenly knowing more about people than I thought I needed to comes in.
Doesn't matter if you're writing fantasy or realistic fiction, no matter what, the people and their interactions have to feel real. If they don't, then the whole story just... fails. Or at least that's how it is for me. If characters are supposed to be wacky and different (like Baccano!), that's one thing. Even in Baccano!'s case, the setting was realistic, just everything else was wacky and tilted to the left... including about half of the characters. However, if everything's wacky, including the setting and the story's all cock-eyed, then I don't want to read that mess because it's probably the worst kind of mind-screw. A story always, always, always needs an anchoring point. A point that you can measure the rest of the wackiness by otherwise it just doesn't make any sense and why am I reading this madness I need a break.
And then, the author has lost the reader and the reader/viewer will not return. Ever.
For me, that anchoring point is people. Not just people, but the people I know best. Who do I know best right now? My family and friends. So, they are getting written into my stories. I hope it works out and soon I'll have a full length novel ready to be published, but right now I'm working on rewriting the first draft and I'm having issues. Then there's the story of Melissa Miller which will be on a blog eventually. Maybe in the next couple of weeks. Maybe in the next month.
Just remember, write what you know. Even if you don't know much. Have at least one thing to anchor your reader or you'll have them swallowed by chaos.
And Sweet Dreams.
Comments
Post a Comment
Have something to say about this post? Write it here!