I think I’ve gone a long time as a writing blog without having a post on “write what you know.” I had second and third thoughts on whether I should bother. I’m sure there are 4.634 gazillion blog posts on the subject.
The term write what you know is considered a good adage to follow. If you quilt, you can write compelling fiction about a team of quilters. If you like motorcycles but hate quilting, let the first group do the quilt stories.
There are people who rail against this advice. “If we only wrote what we knew, we wouldn’t have any science fiction. Or historicals. Or sparkly vampire love fests.” (Maybe that last one wouldn’t be a bad thing.)
I would say, they’re both right.
I didn’t have to eat durian to describe it
I work in medicine. I spent two months in Thailand. This may have have some influence on my WIP involving a medical student traveling to Thailand. It makes it easier to start there, as I have background in it. When I’ve had critiques, people comment on the sections where I use the tropical location, or have a suspenseful scene with medical overtones. These parts seem to resonate more.
Writing what I know seems to be paying off right now.
The rub is that I don’t know if I can write the same stuff forever. I haven’t been to every country, and I don’t think everything I write will be set among tropical breezes and exotic fruit. Obviously authors write about many things they don’t know firsthand. They do their research, use real world experiences as references, and play off of them to write something new and unique to them.
Brandilyn Collins has an excellent threepostseries on her old blog where she can take anyone and put them into the mindset of a murderer. If we wrote what we knew, a lot of mystery and suspense writers have some skeletons in their closets. Maybe literally. But Brandilyn’s method helps an author go to a place they would never reach otherwise (we hope).
There you go. I’m officially on the fence. Sometimes you need to write what you know. Other times demand something original, but you can still find analogies in your life to make it pop.
I think I’ve gone a long time as a writing blog without having a post on “write what you know.” I had second and third thoughts on whether I should bother. I’m sure there are 4.634 gazillion blog posts on the subject.
The term write what you know is considered a good adage to follow. If you quilt, you can write compelling fiction about a team of quilters. If you like motorcycles but hate quilting, let the first group do the quilt stories.
There are people who rail against this advice. “If we only wrote what we knew, we wouldn’t have any science fiction. Or historicals. Or sparkly vampire love fests.” (Maybe that last one wouldn’t be a bad thing.)
I would say, they’re both right.
I didn’t have to eat durian to describe it
I work in medicine. I spent two months in Thailand. This may have have some influence on my WIP involving a medical student traveling to Thailand. It makes it easier to start there, as I have background in it. When I’ve had critiques, people comment on the sections where I use the tropical location, or have a suspenseful scene with medical overtones. These parts seem to resonate more.
Writing what I know seems to be paying off right now.
The rub is that I don’t know if I can write the same stuff forever. I haven’t been to every country, and I don’t think everything I write will be set among tropical breezes and exotic fruit. Obviously authors write about many things they don’t know firsthand. They do their research, use real world experiences as references, and play off of them to write something new and unique to them.
Brandilyn Collins has an excellent threepostseries on her old blog where she can take anyone and put them into the mindset of a murderer. If we wrote what we knew, a lot of mystery and suspense writers have some skeletons in their closets. Maybe literally. But Brandilyn’s method helps an author go to a place they would never reach otherwise (we hope).
There you go. I’m officially on the fence. Sometimes you need to write what you know. Other times demand something original, but you can still find analogies in your life to make it pop.
In my WIP, my inspiration was an image of a body in the water that is found by a Thai fisherman. From there I started asking how he got there, and the story took off.
I initially started the story with the fisherman finding the body. I recently revised it to show the person found in the water running for his life in the jungle, to make the suspense immediate and to show more connection to events later on. So my first chapter was Travis running and getting caught, and the fisherman finding his body in the water. I then shift to Jenna, Travis’s sister, who is a medical student on training in the ER, showing a day in her life to introduce her character and skill set, for chapter two.
I just got the results back from a writing competition I entered. The feedback was positive, with constructive criticism revealing things I needed to work on. One repeated comment was that I wasn’t starting with the protagonist in the main conflict right away.
One judge suggested the first chapter be a prologue. Another thought I needed to start with Jenna, and show her getting the news about her brother right away.
These are good thoughts, but I think the contest is limited by only being the first 15 pages. In the next chapter I introduce the other main character and his connection to Jenna, with chapter 4 as the point when Jenna finds out about her murdered brother.
My dilemna is how to handle the opening. Is a prologue the right way to go? I’ve struggled with this for a while. I understand why it would work that way. I also hear readers skip prologues. I never do, but then I read the acknowledgements and almost anything else in print in the book.
So this is a question for my writing friends. What do you think about prologues, and how would you suggest arranging the structure here?
In my WIP, my inspiration was an image of a body in the water that is found by a Thai fisherman. From there I started asking how he got there, and the story took off.
I initially started the story with the fisherman finding the body. I recently revised it to show the person found in the water running for his life in the jungle, to make the suspense immediate and to show more connection to events later on. So my first chapter was Travis running and getting caught, and the fisherman finding his body in the water. I then shift to Jenna, Travis’s sister, who is a medical student on training in the ER, showing a day in her life to introduce her character and skill set, for chapter two.
I just got the results back from a writing competition I entered. The feedback was positive, with constructive criticism revealing things I needed to work on. One repeated comment was that I wasn’t starting with the protagonist in the main conflict right away.
One judge suggested the first chapter be a prologue. Another thought I needed to start with Jenna, and show her getting the news about her brother right away.
These are good thoughts, but I think the contest is limited by only being the first 15 pages. In the next chapter I introduce the other main character and his connection to Jenna, with chapter 4 as the point when Jenna finds out about her murdered brother.
My dilemna is how to handle the opening. Is a prologue the right way to go? I’ve struggled with this for a while. I understand why it would work that way. I also hear readers skip prologues. I never do, but then I read the acknowledgements and almost anything else in print in the book.
So this is a question for my writing friends. What do you think about prologues, and how would you suggest arranging the structure here?
No, literally, you have to write through the pain!
I’m fighting some low back issues for the last couple of weeks, and it may be time to get some injections into the back. Even though I’m in the medical profession, it doesn’t mean I like getting needles poked into me any more than the next guy. But I’ll be alright, although it is a little depressing to be limited when spring is coming and Idaho is actually having a spring. And who knows, there might be something to write out of all of this. 😉
So much for my hook. Yes, I am dealing with some pain, but sometimes we have to write when it hurts figuratively as well. The subject we’re dealing with may be close to our own trials or troubles. We may be exposing feelings or thoughts long buried. It may be just good ol’ writers’ block pinning us down on the proverbial mat, and no matter what we do we can’t wriggle free from its grip.
What do we do?
It isn’t fun to hit the difficult parts, but if you believe what you’re doing is worth it, then it is imperative to power through. In my WIP, I touch on human trafficking. It is not pleasant to deal with some of this, and I have some characters saying things that I find abhorrent. I don’t see a way around it. If I want to see this story to fruition, it has to go there.
One way to break through is to keep writing. If it freezes your progress, it can be difficult to keep momentum. When I hit a point like this, I found setting a timer and making myself write whatever crap that comes out helped a lot. It pushed me through the tough part.
As a Christian, I believe another method is certainly prayer. If it is a personal pain, writing about it can be cathartic but it opens old wounds. Again using medical analogies, sometimes festering wounds need to be opened so the bad stuff can be drained out and true healing can begin. Prayer and Bible study can help with the spiritual healing.
Sometimes we may need to get up, stretch our legs, and move out of the situation to clear our head. If we’re beating our heads against the monitor (hopefully still figuratively here), it might be best to leave and return with a fresh perspective.
At the end, it is important to always get back up again. If it is worth fighting for, don’t stay down. Push through it. And here’s a little musical interlude to help with the mood 😉
—
What say you? Have you had pain (figurative or literal) you’ve had to battle to keep going?
No, literally, you have to write through the pain!
I’m fighting some low back issues for the last couple of weeks, and it may be time to get some injections into the back. Even though I’m in the medical profession, it doesn’t mean I like getting needles poked into me any more than the next guy. But I’ll be alright, although it is a little depressing to be limited when spring is coming and Idaho is actually having a spring. And who knows, there might be something to write out of all of this. 😉
So much for my hook. Yes, I am dealing with some pain, but sometimes we have to write when it hurts figuratively as well. The subject we’re dealing with may be close to our own trials or troubles. We may be exposing feelings or thoughts long buried. It may be just good ol’ writers’ block pinning us down on the proverbial mat, and no matter what we do we can’t wriggle free from its grip.
What do we do?
It isn’t fun to hit the difficult parts, but if you believe what you’re doing is worth it, then it is imperative to power through. In my WIP, I touch on human trafficking. It is not pleasant to deal with some of this, and I have some characters saying things that I find abhorrent. I don’t see a way around it. If I want to see this story to fruition, it has to go there.
One way to break through is to keep writing. If it freezes your progress, it can be difficult to keep momentum. When I hit a point like this, I found setting a timer and making myself write whatever crap that comes out helped a lot. It pushed me through the tough part.
As a Christian, I believe another method is certainly prayer. If it is a personal pain, writing about it can be cathartic but it opens old wounds. Again using medical analogies, sometimes festering wounds need to be opened so the bad stuff can be drained out and true healing can begin. Prayer and Bible study can help with the spiritual healing.
Sometimes we may need to get up, stretch our legs, and move out of the situation to clear our head. If we’re beating our heads against the monitor (hopefully still figuratively here), it might be best to leave and return with a fresh perspective.
At the end, it is important to always get back up again. If it is worth fighting for, don’t stay down. Push through it. And here’s a little musical interlude to help with the mood 😉
—
What say you? Have you had pain (figurative or literal) you’ve had to battle to keep going?
