Hey everyone. We’re here with another post this week. This weeks post was something that I’ve always enjoyed talking to other writers about. Its interesting because everyone has a different opinion on this topic. I’m going to kind of give you my opinion on it which, from what other writers have told me, is kind of a unique view of this topic but I’m hoping it will help some of you. So, without further ado…
Ten Writing Commandments: Write What You Know
I’ve heard a lot of different writers say this to me and other writers. Write what you know. When I first heard this sentence, I was really confused. I wasn’t sure exactly what they meant. I read a writer’s blog several years ago where they explained this ‘write what you know’. To summarize, they explained that when a writer says write what you know they don’t mean to only write things that you know. We wouldn’t need fiction if they said that. Writing what you know is writing things you understand or enjoy. This explanation makes a lot of sense to me and applying it to all the situations I’ve heard writers or authors explain that you need to write what you know helps me to understand what they meant. But I’ve always taken it a step further when I tell other writers to write what you know.
Writing what you know is definitely something that every writer should do. That is not a topic up for debate. What is up to personal preference is what this phrase means exactly. When I tell writers to write what you know, I mean to write what you actually know.
Write what you know – so know a lot.
Research is really important for a writer. If you’re going to write about someone who is stuck in a cage under water than you need to understand what that would be like. Obviously, you don’t need to experience it, but you need to know certain things. You need to know the dangers, causes, and consequences of the bends. You need to know what kinds of cages might be used for such an activity. You need to know things about this topic to write about it. Even if you write fantasy you need to know certain basic laws of nature. You might need to know the longest length a sword can be before it’s too heavy for a single person to lift and swing, even with two hands. (About 6ft when it’s made of steel if I remember correctly, don’t ask me how I know that). Or you might need to know the average shooting range of the average man with an English long bow. Whatever it is you need to know certain things to write them.
Research is something that you either hate or you love. I’m going to make a tentative statement that if you don’t enjoy research you aren’t researching the right things. Research in school and research as a writer can often times be completely different things. When I research things for school, I’m looking for the most basic information about that topic that I kind find, quote, and write my paper on. When I’m doing research for a book it’s much more fun. Sometimes that topic that I’m researching interests me greatly (such as that interesting sword fact), those are the easiest things to research because you are enjoying them.
If you are researching things that you don’t necessarily enjoy but need to know for your story you can do two things. 1) You can hate it and do the research anyway and then hate that part of your book when that information comes up because you hated doing the research for it. Or 2) You can make it into something fun. If I’m researching something, I don’t enjoy I often try to think of an interesting, unique, or funny way I can incorporate it into my story. I love writing, I write for myself. And so, this turns my research from the drudgery of research into something more fun – Writing.
Often times when you’re writing you are trying to create something that you didn’t really know about before or that doesn’t even exist. In the series I’ve been working on for 7 years I had to create a genetic evolution through several centuries of human generations that uses bioelectricity to give the people control over other machines. This is science fiction. It is not real. But to write this genetic evolution into my story I had to understand different things. I had to understand synapses, bioelectricity, genetics and evolution. Obviously I couldn’t write a thesis paper on it and I probably wouldn’t want to study it in school but I know enough about it that I can make my fictional concept sound like a possible reality. I wrote what I knew. One of my favorite quotes every says,
“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” ~Tom Clancy
Also, only write genres that you know. Does that mean that if you read fantasy novels that you can’t write a romance novel? No. It just means you need to do another kind of research. You need to read several different kinds of romance novels. They’re all different and that’s something you’ll discover as you read it. A romance novel is different from a fantasy novel which is different than a science fiction novel which is different from a historical fiction which is different from a contemporary and so on and so on. This is different kind of research from looking up facts about science or math. This is writing research, plain and simple.
The last kind of research that I think every writer needs to do to make their writing easier is cultural research. I can not tell you how many stories I have read where I can pick out cultural facts that, piecing them together, I can tell which earth culture the fantasy culture is based off of. I’ve recently been rereading a fantasy series that I have read a few times in the last 8 years. The last time I read it was about 4 years ago and listening to it, having furthered my education into secondary education I can now see cultural pieces. With this understanding I’ve come to understand that the elven culture in the novel is based loosely after Asian culture. Their forms of speech and dress are similar to the description and images of Japanese language and dress. Their tea culture is similar to that of the tea culture of China. They’re military is organized in much the same way the ancient Chinese military was organized. These are things I didn’t notice several years ago because I did not yet know them.
In order to write what you know you need to know a lot. This requires a writer to do research. Research can be fun and can be just about anything from looking up facts, to reading several new books in a new genre, and learning about the cultures of different countries and ethnicities. Research is the very center of writing what you know for every writer.
I hope that this week’s post was helpful to everyone. If you really liked this post let me know. I’ve been thinking about writing a series on research, what it is, how to make it fun, and the different kinds of research that exist. Let me know what you think about that idea. Don’t forget to give the post a like, follow me on social media at the bottom of the page, leave a comment if you have one, share this blog, and become a page member so you can receive on demand updates. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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