I spoke with John Hickman (@loonymoose1), a fellow writer, on twitter about how our experiences influence our writing. It was an important discussion to have, so we each blogged about it!\u00a0Here’s my take:<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a popular phrase in writing, \u201cWrite What You Know.\u201d That\u2019s all well and good for nonfiction or contemporary fiction and a few genre pieces, but I write fantasy, scifi and speculative fiction. I write about things that never will happen or have an infinitesimally small chance of happening. So in you\u2019d assume, I write about what I know only in my imagination. Oh contraire, plenty of my ideas are based off facts I do know.\u00a0 That sort of knowledge is needed to ensure the believability of said imaginary places.<\/p>\n
Even though it may not seem it, I believe in the original statement wholeheartedly. Although I have written from a male perspective and focused the plot around a whimsical setting, the day-to-day minutia he endures is largely based off my own experiences. Interactions with peers, romantic entanglements, even how I sleep at night. The struggles in the story are either those I lived through or had been concepts I\u2019m drawn to that I have extensively researched.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think the rule is meant to pigeon hole a writer into communicating a tale that strictly adheres to whatever they experienced firsthand, I believe it is meant as a guide. It reminds us scribes to use those life moments as a building block, not a blueprint. By extrapolating minor details and plugging them into a large scale project, it can bring something unfamiliar into a realm that can be understood.<\/p>\n
For example, my WIP\u2019s setting is on an Earth-like planet (think Star Wars\u2019 Naboo or Avatar\u2019s Pandora \u2013 similar, but not identical) that uses inspiration I have discovered from the nature I\u2019m exposed to, sometimes in my own backyard. The atmospheric patterns could be entirely unlike Earth\u2019s, but I don\u2019t know anything different.\u00a0 Sure, I have unusual animals, but they\u2019re foundation is from what I know.<\/p>\n
Most of the time, writers incorporate details of their lives subconsciously, throwing in a reference that might only have significant meaning to those in the know. Other times, the insertion of the writer\u2019s life is intentional. Some people use friends and family members as the skeleton for characters, or perhaps even someone they hold a vendetta against. I\u2019ve used anagrams of people and pets names.<\/p>\n
The experience of the writer is a tool on its own, offering substantial information and detail that can then be transferred into a story of any genre.\u00a0 So when you write, write what you know. Use that knowledge to develop something incredible that speaks to people. Readers will latch onto events and characters they relate to, and soon enough, your narrative will not only be a secret guide to your life, but to others\u2019 lives as well.<\/p>\n
Read John Hickman’s blog here: AColdSnowinCastawayCounty.authorsxpress.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I spoke with John Hickman (@loonymoose1), a fellow writer, on twitter about how our experiences influence our writing. It was an important discussion to have, so we each blogged about it!\u00a0Here’s my take: There\u2019s a popular phrase in writing, \u201cWrite What You Know.\u201d That\u2019s all well and good for nonfiction or contemporary fiction and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,42,45,15,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-plot","category-practice","category-writing","category-writing-tips"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YHlB-2v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}