Write What You Don’t Know
Why do people always suggest that writers write what they know? That would make for either a lot of very boring books (because, face it, we all, basically live pretty boring, ordinary lives –thank God!) or a lot fewer books in the world. It would totally wipe out the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. It would make for very few mysteries and then, most would be procedurals, rather than the good, juicy murders so many enjoy. Nope, I’m sorry, writing what you know would be just awful.
I prefer to write what I don’t know. I have to admit (although it may come as a shock to you many of you) that I’ve never been to Regency London. I have never traveled back in time to the early 1800s, and honestly, I don’t think I would like to do so – talk about stinky! Come on, people bathed once a week if they were lucky. All sorts of nasty stuff was regularly thrown right out into the street. And the most common mode of transportation was the horse, and we all know how lovely they smell.
Actually, to be straight forward, the adage isn’t to write what you know, as in what you have personally experienced, because all of my silliness above would hold true. No, it’s to write what you have emotionally experienced.
Nearly all of us have experienced love, heart-break, friendship, and disappointment. It is that, deeper emotional, human experience that you are writing about – and it doesn’t matter if it takes place in 12th century India or 27th century outer Milky Way. It doesn’t matter if the character experiencing it is a man or a vampire, the same emotions hold true. It is that which you are writing, because it is that which is the most important part of any book. Murders are fun to read about, but frustration at not being able to figure out who committed the murder is much more real and we have all been frustrated by something in our lives, even if it wasn’t something quite so exciting.
So, what about women writing from the male perspective? Or, as my son pointed out, white people writing about being African (and presumably black). How do we do that? I’ve never been a man. Do men feel things the same way women do? Do white people feel things the same way as black? I would say that it’s not your gender or race which determines how you feel, but your experience, how you were raised and how you were taught to deal with the world and all that it throws at you.
Yes, men do feel differently than women because they have experienced the world differently. Does that mean that as a woman I can’t write from a male perspective. No. Because I know men. I grew up with them, I’ve brought one into the world and I’ve lived with one for over 20 years. So I’ve got a good idea how one would think, and how one would feel. And, I imagine, that someone who knew enough of African culture could write from a black African perspective even though they were white.
It’s all in the ability to take on another persona, to open your mind to other possibilities, other ways of thinking. It’s called creativity and imagination. It is that which makes the novelist. And it is that which makes for a great book, no matter who wrote it.
