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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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I have a question to pose to all you writers out there, new fish and old betafish. Everyone has heard the saying that you write what you know. LisaMarie's book, See Sabrina Run, here on Book Country is a wonderful example of that, the author has a lot of political experience and rolls that into her book.
This makes me curious, what do you know and how do you use it in your writing?
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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I have issue with the "write what you know" thing. I did a whole blog post about it. In a nutshell, my interpretation of the "rule" is this:
I know how to research. I know how to ask questions. With these two skills in hand, I know I can learn enough about just about anything by research. Enough so that I can write about it with reasonable assurance that facts that really matter, details that really count, won't be off.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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“Write what you know” can easily backfire, IMHO. What I’ve heard agents and editors complain about is when writers take what they know and turn it into a “Let me show you HOW much I know!” type of story. Or when what you know turns into a personal platform to advocate a certain cause or belief, which only works if you’re targeting a very specific demographic with the same value system.
When I wrote SSR, I used the wacky world of legislative session as a backdrop for the story only (no one wants to read about the minutiae, unless it’s quirky, bizarre, funny or otherwise absurd). I mean, this is a romance, after all. It’s about two people from very different worlds who fall in love -- it’s not about politics at all. It’s far more interesting to have a MFC who drags home at midnight after a grueling, 18-hour day (in high heels) still hopped up on caffeine than to tell the reader what she’s doing during those 18 hours.
I think that when an author writes what he or she knows, he/she is more in tune with how to write such that the smaller elements of the story ring true … at the same time, they don’t bog the story down with needless detail.
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Joined: 3/7/2011
Posts: 38
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"Write What You Know" is the main reason it took me so long to get serious about writing a novel. I never wanted to write about what I know. When you're a fantasy and sci-fi story creator, it's impossible to W W Y K cause most of the world is imaginary, anyway.
What I discovered about myself as a writer is that I like to learn as a I write. Crazy as it sounds, I love doing research. When I'm intrigued by a topic, one of my first questions is what kind of story can I write about that? Often one line of research will reveal a fascinating detail which can lead to interesting theories and opinions.
What you know can be used to strengthen the believability of your story -- things like using a town you've lived in for where your characters live or basing your fantasy town on a real town you are familiar with.
I prefer to state it as "Write What Fascinates You".
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 1
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I think you have to take the term into a broader sense. I have read easily thousands of novels but mostly in two romance sub genres. I've read so many regency historicals, I 'know' enough to not have to have lived in that era to be able to write a good story. I also read heaps of Blazes so now I also 'know' I can write one of them as well. I loved Twilight but I know for sure I don't know enough about paranormal to write about it. I think that's where the term comes from. You can research and ask qquestions till your pen runs out of ink but getting the feel and flow can sometimes be where authors come undone.
Just my opinion =)
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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But... what if i know everything? (just kidding! although, it is one of my goals in life to try every day to know SOMEthing about everything. )
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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I suppose I should have said 'what influences your writing' instead of 'write what you know'. My bad, newbie mistake.
"Write What Fascinates You". LOVE this.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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Don't worry about it. Write what you know is a very rampant piece of advice that doesn't always translate well.
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 8
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I don't think "write what you know" is about subject matter, or genre, or dialogue. I think it's a suggestion to create verisimilitude in your work by limiting the conscious scope to your own experience. Only write about sex if you've had sex.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 49
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We know people. We know ourselves. We know the experiences we've had and the emotional reactions to them. We know (to an extent) what kinds of reactions we would have to experiences we haven't had. We know what the "average" reaction to a certain event would be. We know how to think and how to emote and how to reason (some more than others, obviously).
Too many people interpret WWYK to mean only write about things you've directly experienced, as you experienced them. What it really means, though, is take your own experiences and apply them to what you're writing about. Think about how you (or someone else similar to your character) would react in a situation. Write that. Don't just make things up without any grounding in reality, even if you're writing speculative fiction.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 222
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I don't like to write what I know. I like to write about what I love. I want to write about things that make me want to giggle like a school-girl because the concepts fascinate me. I want to be absorbed by what I write.
I don't like reading what people write because they *know* the subject. It often either turns into a lecture, or it feels so dry because it becomes something that is not a passion, but a regurgitation of knowledge.
I would rather read something that was passionate and made me giggle at the lack of complete data, rather than something spot-on and perfect in knowledge and lacking the spark that is birthed from passion in the subject. When I write, I have to love the concept, love the idea, love the theme... I will research what I do not know, or rely on others to teach me it, but it is far more worth the work for me to do it out of fascination and appeal rather than 'knowing' the subject.
I find that I test my boundaries if I'm fascinated with a subject, even if I do not know much about it. I want just enough fact to be plausible, and let my imagination claw into the muck and get dirty.
I hope this makes sense to someone other than me.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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But that's how a lot of people seem to take it, and that's what drives writers nuts sometimes. If we were stuck only writing what we know, we'd be writing the same character over and over- ourselves.
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Joined: 5/2/2011
Posts: 59
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I think of it, more broadly, as a few things. Write what your audience doesn't know. I think 'write what you know' is used to describe, more often than not, something we can feel, many of us have, but the author hasn't and it shows. Elves, dragons, faeries, and life on Mars, though - how many of us have experienced that? None of my readers, I'd wager, so they can't complain. And, secondly, write about what you care about. I think I see this one a lot in more mainstream fiction, but I hear people say they want to write about the war in Iraq/Afghanistan, or a historical war, but the era and the technicalities just don't interest them and no amount of research on the matter is going to change that. Write about something you care about, and ideally are even knowledgeable about. Because, and on a secondary note, there are many things that without a lot of time, money, and perhaps a passport, you simply can't hope to research to the best extent. Particularly food. I read a book once about a cheese aficionado and it took about a chapter of what read like copypasta'd descriptions of each cheese from a wine book that I realized the author had likely never had anything finer than Cracker Barrel cheddar.
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Joined: 4/28/2011
Posts: 60
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I have a terrible time when I write what I know. I tend to overstuff when I do that, putting in details I think are important but really aren't. Either that, or because I know a topic particularly well I spend all my time over-criticizing my own work and/or finding all the holes. I also find knowing too much sometimes stifles my imagination. Instead, I've found I do better at writing what I sorta know.
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Joined: 5/12/2011
Posts: 240
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I was going to say something else, but Sara Amis has an excellent point about NOT writing what you don't know, because you will rely on bad stereotypes. I cannot agree more.
But I think I was going to say that good writers are going to write what they know, regardless of what it's overtly about or when or where it's set etc. I don't know anything about 500 years into the human future, but I do know something about being attracted to someone whose values I find questionable. So that's what became the focus of my short story set in space 500 years from now. The what and where and how is fun to imagine and all (you know, as fun as the post-apocalypse can be), but really it's just the setting for the development of human understanding across difference.
I also write historical fiction and it tends to be set in the period and place I specialized in for graduate school. Not only do I "know" that stuff, I know it because it intrigues and fascinates me--that's why I chose to study it in the first place. I DO teach it in an official capacity as a teacher, so my fiction need not be a lecture. It can be a romp in that world for those who already also know a lot about it or an introduction via "experience" (when reading stands in for experience) for people who don't.
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Joined: 5/12/2011
Posts: 240
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P.S. to Sara Amis again: Faulkner, duh.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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@Sara
I like your use of analogy, because I too loathe the way Texas is portrayed, especially in romantic fiction. I’ve lived here all of my life, and I have yet to (personally) know anyone who wears cowboy boots and a ten-gallon hat, rides horses, lives on a ranch or talks with a thick Texas drawl. The big urban cities have the same big urban features as any other big city, and there’s also a huge European population.
So I cringe when I read books that interject the Texas stereotype into the mix. Tells me that said author is either intentionally capitalizing on the stereotype or has never spent much time here.
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Joined: 5/12/2011
Posts: 240
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LisaMarie, you obviously haven't met my ex-husband's brother.
LOL. But he wears those things, does those things and speaks that way because he's created a fantasy life for himself. Much of it is quite canny, as he is also a highly successful trial lawyer and draws on nostalgia about common sense and old-fashioned justice to win his cases.
The fact about Texas is that it is HUGE. It has about as many kinds of people as the world in general. Including posers, tee-hee.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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@Lily
Oh, no! So you know a “lifestyle builder,” huh?
My last S.O. (from the PNW) bought a pair of LONGHORNS and put them on his wall. Seriously. That is like, super uncool. You can always tell the people who aren’t from Texas, because those are the ones who look like they stepped out of a western wear store, LOL!
It was the same when I lived in Alaska, too. Very well-educated people I know who were born and raised in big cities asked me the most inane questions. “Will you live in an ice house?” “How long does it take to get around by dogsled?” “Won’t you miss not having electricity and cable television?” “Do you have to hunt for your food?” And sure, there were a few wingnuts who moved up there and lived that kind of lifestyle. Why, I couldn’t tell you. I could seriously make bank if I wrote a romance novel incorporating some of the stereotypical views of Alaska, but hey … haven’t been there or done that, ‘cause I didn’t exactly live in the Bush. ☺
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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RE:
“I was a bit flabbergasted that this person was telling new writers they couldn't write a character with a job they hadn't personally done themselves.”
I definitely think this is possible, with a little (or a lot) of research, depending on how important the job is to the character and the plot. For example, one of my best friends is a heart surgeon. If I ever wanted to write a novel in which the MMC was a heart surgeon, I’d phone him up and pick his brain. Writing about a character who’s a made a career smuggling diamonds into the U.S. for several decades without getting caught … well, that might be quite a bit more difficult.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Write What You Know is a good piece of advice, but it ought not to be taken literally. Use what you know, particularly in terms of motivations and relationships, to animate your creations and support your story.
I miss, in fantasy especially, the everyday. Likes, dislikes, worries, regrets, illuminate character and give us a break from epic concerns. And they go a long way toward making mysterious moves clear and turning formulaic figures into folks we can empathize with.
In a book I'm reading, I can't focus on style. I am constantly wondering, Why would a Prince do this? Why would the King let him? How is a guard allowed to make such a potentially disastrous diplomatic decision, far above his pay-grade, for sure? Makes no sense.
I'm not given enough information, (foibles, history, a strategy, etc.) to get me to swallow inexplicably shallow and/or illogical behaviors. Five chapters in, I ought to have more of a handle on the politics and on who these people are, what makes them tick. This doesn't do, not even in La-dee-da Fairyland. You can't just snap your fingers and say, that's the way it is. Well, you can, but it doesn't work.
I say, draw your characters and situations with the level of familiarity that you would be able to call upon if you were describing your relatives, your boss, your doubts, your hopes, your world. Embellish it, turn it inside out and upside-down, build your castles in the clouds, but build on a foundation of personal experience and observation. Don't get so fixated on the magical powers of your pointy-earred elves that you forget that they are people too, with dinner to cook and garbage to take out and bills to pay. Or whatever.
Write What You Know means to me, make it real, do your research, think critically, and write emotional truth, true lies, based on universal impulses.
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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As a young writer, I was told "write what you know." An, like most novices, took it to mean to write about my town, my family/friends, my likes, dislikes, etc. I've seen others do it wonderfully--particularly with smaller hometowns. It adds a nice flavor that makes the setting another character. I've also seen it backfire in that they include small things that may make sense only if you live in the town.
In college, I took a writing class. The professor changed it from "write what you know" to "write what you can get away with." His example was that you didn't have to be a heart surgeon to write about one performing heart surgery. But if you did your research well enough, you could convince your readers you were. And I have lived by that for some stories.
I found that "write what you know" works if what you know is interesting. In high school, we were given the theme "wedding." I worked as a sacristan at my church and had worked my share of weddings. I took some of my worst experiences and combined it into a sacristan's wedding nightmare. It was different in a string of "dream wedding" stories and slightly entertaining because of the seed of truth behind it.
In another historical fiction project I'm working on, I'm once again using what I know. I volunteer giving tours of a local historic landmark with a fascinating role in history. Sadly, it's role is often left out of the history books. So I'm using what I know to tell the house's story through the eyes of a young servant.
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 192
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Write What You Know is great in theory, but like Mimi said, shouldn't be taken literally. For example, what can I, a 33-year-old mom from "Little Rhody," who's never traveled to India or even the Grand Canyon, never fought whale poachers on foreign seas, never gambled everything and lost, never got thrown out of anything in her life... (you get the idea) know about anything? I have no idea how much I don't know about life. 
But others have said it, and so I'll repeat it: we have all experienced things that change us, affect us. And there are universal truths that unite us all. That being said, I have ridden in a few police cars (but only in the front seat, mind you), have spent a lot of time in court rooms and police headquarters, have met lots of interesting people and had my eyes opened to many amazing ideas. That is what I pull from when they say, "Write what you know."
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 28
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I'll echo other people's posts here. My motto is "write what you're passionate about - and do lots of research." I think that it's always easier to find the factual information one is lacking than to drum up the interest and the drive it takes to write about a subject one knows and doesn't much care about.
Rresearch is also one of the most attractive aspects of writing for me - I get to ask strangers for information, and most are beyond helpful as soon as I utter the magic phrase "I'm writing a novel."
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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This post is very old, but I'll add a little bit more here.
You can research until you know a subject, but actually doing what you are writing about can give you an extra layer of information to draw from. Let's say you're researching blacksmithing because your medieval fantasy is about an apprentice blacksmith. You can read and research about it to get through your project. Or you can contact a local smith or farrier and see if they'll let you tail them for a day.
Getting hands-on can give you so much more information. The smell of hot metal, the way your hand goes a little numb after a long time of slamming metal on metal or the ringing in your ears after work. It's not important facts, but little details that can add to the flavor of your book. As Melissa said, too much detail can weigh down a book, but some carefully placed tidbits can enhance the dish, so to speak.
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 28
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Danielle, that's very true. But I'd put the tagging along behind a local farrier in the research column, too, rather than in the "knowing." It's all information that can be collected once you figure out where the story is going.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that not knowing shouldn't be a bar to writing because the resources to enhance knowledge are available.
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Joined: 8/21/2011
Posts: 394
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If authors only exclusively wrote about what they knew, there would never be science fiction or fantasy stories. I don't personally know any elves or extraterrestrials or have any experience with magic or hyperdrive systems. 
I've peppered my writing a little with what I know (geology, clay arts, etc.), but for the most part, if I want to include details of something I don't know about, I do some research. Heck, that's pretty much how I get through life - if I don't know something, I either learn about it by doing or researching.
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Good point, Danielle. Spending a day with a blacksmith can give us more than information. Experience causes feelings, affects attitude and influences how we process information. All this is to say the obvious: a blacksmith would have a different understanding about blacksmithing than would I. He could help me add truth to the facts.
'Course, those troublemakes Maria and Angela are right. Resources other than experience are available and experience cannot include elves or extraterrestrials. But what we already know about life is probably the core of our writing and we research information to add realism to our fiction. Personally, when I need information not otherwise available, I just write what my Rice Crispies tell me.
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Joined: 2/25/2012
Posts: 20
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I think the best rule set for write-what-you-know was described by Mark Twain in his Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses: some of the criticism is unrelated, but one thing that really stuck out at me was just that there were small details, errors, that wouldn't have happened if Cooper had truly known what he was talking about (mostly the wildly inaccurate and over the top descriptions of the MC's aim, etc). (Disclaimer: I read the Offenses at a very young age and was immediately terrified of making the same mistakes and having someone relentlessly pull them apart, so I tend to gravitate to this example pretty quickly. xD)
That said, it is easy enough to just research something. I think if you give it some time, talk to some people who are in the know on whichever subject you're writing about, and have a level-headed beta reader or two, you can avoid the worst of the tell-tale mistakes. I stick to a related rule of thumb: "write what you care about enough to research."
Some things, though, I guess we can never truly know, regardless of research: I tend to write male MCs, even though I'll never know what it's really like to be a male. Additionally I write fantasy, so there are the predictable scenes of violence: I'll likely never know what it feels like to swing a sword at someone in earnest (even if I did get into a fair few fights as a child, I doubt that experience qualifies as "knowing"), and villains can be hard to write because I have never understood the appeal of running/destroying the world--sounds so tasking, am I right?
In that case, fact-fudging is necessary, and I doubt anyone judges too harshly for it. So I throw in things that I love (birds, botany/herbalism, astrophysics, time travel, romance, and -ahem- fighting) and hope that a certain amount of research on each will get me where I'd like the story to go. ^-^
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Joined: 2/9/2012
Posts: 427
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"I stick to a related rule of thumb: "write what you care about enough to research." -- Well said!
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 192
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This thread reminds me: must go spend some more quality time with my police pals. Think they'll let me write some speeding tickets? Secretly, it's what I've always wanted to do.
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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Only if you're willing to show up to traffic court.
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Joined: 1/10/2012
Posts: 192
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Alexandria - I suppose I could make time to bust some knuckles in traffic court. There's one right in the building where I work, so that's perfect!
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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Laura--Well, that's convenient!
And I fell into one trap of "write what you know." I set it in my hometown and therefore forgot to thoroughly describe it. Will have to rework that!
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