Writing what we know, and don't know...

"Write what you know." I can't remember how many people have said that - teachers in classes, authors, and the likes. I really did try to stay true to that…at least when I began writing.  (I suppose that is obvious from the previous post?) However, if we only "write what we know" - aren't we limited to characters that only do/say what we would (or those who we know personally enough to write as another voice)? What about subject matter? Also, to add another wrench into this pitiful pot, we would only be able to write how WE perceive life. So, how about the reactions and responses of other points of view? A left brain vs. right brain? An extrovert vs. introvert's take on a situation? Man vs. women? Let's face it - no two people are going to act or respond in the same way…most of the time.

Of course it is easier voicing off personal experiences, but what about writing a scene or subject matter in which you have no personal experience - nothing to pull from while penning?
Let's say you are a twenty-something year old writer who wants to base a novel during the Great Depression. Well, obviously, you didn't live it and neither did your parents. Maybe your grandparents did, though? So, how do  you go about making a believable story, set in a time in which you have no personal experience? Research! If one of those grandparents did live during that time period, talk to them about it. (Two for one with this - find out more about your family as a whole, that specific family member, and be inspired by the way the tell it- their voice. I guess that is a four for one when you add in getting the information that you need.) Biographies, primary sources (like newspapers from the time, interviews, etc.), and other sources (like government sites with statistics and information - on-line sites that end with  .edu, .gov, etc.), are all great places to start and gather more. Avoid movies and Hollywood glorified fiction - those are great at romancing eras, but not necessarily telling raw truths.

Bottom line - when writing what you don't know - be INTERESTED and INVESTED in it. If you don't do your homework, you can lose your credibility. There will always be a historian out there, picking apart the frayed edges of your fiction. Of course, that concerns the setting. When it comes to topics - subject matters that your book might hit on, but you know little about, do the same. Does one of your characters have a mother with Alzheimers and you know nothing about the disease? Find medical websites, forums where children of Alzhiemers patients discuss issues, etc. - KNOW it, don't guess it. Please, please, please don't guess! (An aside - I will not name the tv show, but I was watching a series once and one of the character's donated bone marrow for his son. Great dad! However, the same day the father donates, the kid gets the transplant and they both leave the hospital the next day. What?! Ooook - first off - donation/transplant usually don't happen at the same time. Secondly, pediatric bone marrow transplant patients are generally in the hospital a minimum of 45 days - sometimes as long as 6-8 months! The first 13 days before transplant are all about massive doses of chemotherapy and radiation to kill the patient's bone marrow before the transplant can even occur. So - I could keep preaching from this proverbial soap box, but will stop there. Obviously, this subject is more personal to me, so trivializing a bone marrow transplant got under my skin. But it wasn't just that - not with this specific situation or when I reading - it is that a writer clearly was not invested in being credible in their writing!)

A warning to writing what you don't know, though - it will take longer to complete a project, assuming that you want to be credible. In fact,  you may spend more time in research and digging than you do writing your book! I have an ongoing project that I am writing that covers the Western, Pacific, and Home fronts of WWII. The characters are based off combined individuals, most of which I am related to by either blood or love. However, since some of these people are no longer with us, I have had to spend hours combing through military logs, databases, translations, records, etc. I want to honor these people 100% by getting every possible detail correct. I spent 4 hours one afternoon locating which prisons and camps housed prisoners of war from the lower ranks of the Royal Yugoslavian Army, who also came from the Serbian area of the country. I wanted to discover which were near to Belsen Bergen the year that it was liberated and who liberated them. Needless to say, it took a lot of time to translate Serbian and Yugoslavian documents to finally find what I was looking for! BUT - it was worth it! I discovered where my beloved Chicko Bronko had been held, the unit he was with, and conditions that he suffered - all details that will be readily employed in that section of the book!

So - there you have it! Write what you know and research what you don't! You've got this!