Write what you know is the foundation of a good author. Louis certainly lived and breathed the world around him and shared his experiences through his novels and stories. From CONAGHER (https://www.louislamour.com/novels/conagher.htm) At sunset Evie walked away from the cabin and stood alone, her hair stirring a little in the faint breeze. She stood on the edge of the trail, a hundred yards from the cabin. All was very still. She never tired of the mornings and evenings here, the soft lights, the changing colors of sunlight and cloud upon the hills, the stirring of wind in the grass. Out here there was no escaping the sky or the plains, and Evie knew that until she came west she had never really known distance. The air was incredibly clear. Fresh and cool as it was, one breathed it in like drinking cool water; and always there was a definite odor on it, the odor depending on the direction from which the wind blew: the smell of cedar, and of pines beyond, the smell of sage, or, from the dryer lands after a rain, the smell of the creosote bush. #louislamour #writewhatyouknow https://www.instagram.com/p/CpyHLrLP_x3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
All the Bright Places began with this girl, Violet Markey, who in some ways was me. It’s hard to believe how far she’s come on this journey. I can’t wait for you to see her on the screen. 🌸 #allthebrightplaces #atbp #allthebrightplacesmovie #violetmarkey #writewhatyouknow #ellefanning #fanartfriday #fanart #sketch #february28 #gratitude (beautiful artwork by @mar.szalek 💜) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7t3l01pRtJ/?igshid=113u7fo1rrqa1
The Second Commandment of Writing: Write What You Know?
This continues my series in which I tackle the great pieces of literary advice. Any writer who has ever studied the craft has stumbled upon this phrase. Some writers swear by it. Some writers protest it. But how many understand this phrase?
First, we must understand what it doesn’t mean. “Write what you know” does not mean to restrict you to autobiographical stories. It does not restrict you to memoirs. Nor does it restrict who or what you write. If you are a twenty-something millennial, then it does not force you to only write twenty-something millennials. If you are a teacher or a fast-food worker, it does not limit you to writing fast-food workers. “Write what you know” is not a restriction upon your creativity or ingenuity. Those traits form the heart of any writer’s work.
What does it mean then?
I view this literary idiom as having multiple applications and interpretations.
You Know Emotion
Writers should draw upon their emotional experiences to create realistic emotions and actions within their characters. When you are writing a character who is frustrated or scared, recall a time when you yourself were incensed or terrified. This is something akin to ‘method acting’ (another widely misunderstood term). You use your own memories of those emotions to solidify your understanding of the character’s mindset.
The question arises then; How do I write a character who is feeling something I’ve never felt?
This is where an author’s creativity comes in. Imagine you are writing a character who has just committed a murder. You have (presumably) never committed a murder. How could you ‘know’ what that character was feeling? You mutate and magnify your own experiences. An author is reliant upon empathy. You have never committed a murder, but perhaps when you were young you broke something. You tried to sweep the pieces under the rug so that your illicit behavior would go unnoticed. You can recall the initial panic, the paranoia, the fear of punishment, but also the thrill when you felt you might have gotten away scot-free. A good author takes those memories and magnifies them to fit the situation.
Write What You (Can) Know
We writers are fortunate to live in the modern era. The internet is the greatest asset for modern writers. There is a great wealth of knowledge at your fingertips.
Before you write a character, you should do your research. The more distinct their lives are from your own the more research you should do. Research their career. Research the terms and skills they use. If they come from another place in the US, perhaps there are region-specific phrases you can familiarize yourself with. Perhaps there are different cultural beliefs, or cultural traditions your character would know.
As a writer in the modern era you can know almost anything. Write what you know, but research, and know what you’re writing.
This also plays a part into writing fantasy and sci-fi; You may not know what it is like to walk through the streets of a medieval city, but you can research it. You may not know what it is like to be an engineer aboard a space ship, but you can research what it is like to work on a car motor, or a NASA spacecraft. You should also be just as detailed in your research of your own world. You should understand your world just as much as if you were writing any modern or historical setting.
Write What You See
Writers are notorious for borrowing people from their lives and inserting them into their stories. It is something we are accused off constantly. Everyone wants to know what character is based on them. But it is never that simple.
The people in your life are extensions of your experience and understanding. You may not know how to write a character coming home from war, but perhaps you have an uncle who is a veteran. You can base part of your character upon him and his behavior.
You can also base it off another character in other media you have consumed. As writers we should not feel bad while doing this; it is the natural way literary ideas evolve and propagates themselves. While it is important to understand your characters, a writer should have an equal ability to interpret and understand other writers’ characters, and reverse engineer them.
In the same way, you can interpret and understand people as characters, and reverse engineer their actions to be aspects of your character. Perhaps you notice someone on the bus, looking at their phone every five minutes, nervous about missing their stop. You notice their clothing, their foot tapping, the way they put their book away about five minutes before their stop, just to be sure. You can throw these into your vast library of character traits for later use.
As a writer you must know an entire world well enough to tell a story in it, be it the real world or a fictional one. “Write what you know” is often misconstrued as being a limitation upon the author, meant to restrict and confine one’s writing. Rather it is an instruction to write actively, thoughtfully, and emotionally. The second commandment instructs us to use our emotional and situational knowledge to breathe life into our stories.
As “Write what you know” is a counterpoint to itself, my next post will tackle the third commandment of writing: Avoiding Passive Voice.
Sylvia, why did i not learn from your brilliance and your darkness? You shared them so eloquently, so bravely and yet, still lost the fight. How did i not learn from your battle? How could i allow my children to witness my surrender?
“Yeah. Positive.” He folded his arms across his
chest, looking her up and down once before
speaking again.
“Why you askin’?” He kept his walls up, unsure
of her intentions. They were normally innocent,
but you could never know with her. She always
kept him on his toes.
Katherine had been the one to find Davey against a wall after her long day at work, and he looked more than down for the count, which in turn scared the crap out of Katherine. She was quick to get him medical attention, barely being able to sit still as he was being worked on.
After she was told that she could go in, she was more than excited to, happy to see that Davey was alive and well - as far as outward appearances go. She hadn’t gotten much information on his state (or if she did she wasn’t listening all that well), but she came in and sat next to his bed, grabbing on of his hands. “Hey, Dave. How are you feeling?”
Flinching slightly at the sudden presence of another hand around his own, Davey’s expression softened a bit once the stranger spoke.
It was Katherine.
“--If I’m being honest- I feel like shit, Kath- I mean, doc says theres swelling in my brain- any time I move more than my arms I feel like I’m gonna puke--” Davey blinked, eyes glassy from unshed tears, “Hell, Les has been crying all morning. It’s torture...And you know what the worst part is?”
The slow rise and fall of Davey’s chest was the most movement that occurred in the subsequent seconds of silence.
“----the doctor doesn’t even know when I’ll get better.”
She reach out to get the covers again, sighing when they were too far out of reach that she would have to actually move to get them, and instead clung to Jack for heat. “You the responsible one when it’s six a.m. and I’m not fully awake yet.” She joked, although it was mostly true. Until she had at least one cup of coffee, she was staying in sleep mode.
“Come on plumber” Jack slid himself out of her grasp and crawled out of the bed but returned her covers. "Five more minutes” he promised, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. When he returned he had a cup of coffee in a mug that Crutchie and Race had given Katherine for her first big article.
