This week: Let's Break This Rule Edited by: Lilith of House Martell  
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"I wish I'd written more and worried less."
~ Meg LaTorre
“Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
~ Elmore Leonard
“Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterward.”
~ Robert A. Heinlein
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Have you ever been told, "Just write what you know"? I know that I have, by teachers and people who have pointed out that I may have gotten some facts wrong or they disagree with how an event plays out. My favorite is when a reviewer tells me, "Something like that would never happen." Well, guess what, it's happened to me! 
I think we all have different opinions about the 'write what you know' rule. For example, if someone is writing a fantasy story or science fiction. Uhm, there's a lot of room there to make stuff up there! How can you 'write what you know' when writing fantasy?
Writing about just what we know seems very limiting.
If all you do is write from your own experiences, if we’re taking this literally, it gives you very little room to actually create and imagine. At this point, I could write about traveling and living in Florida. I could write about what it’s like to be a retired housewife. If my favorite genre were fantasy; which it isn't, I don’t even have a chance of dabbling in it because battles and alternate worlds are not something I know.
Or is it?
Ok, that may be an outrageous example. Most of us know that creating stories of any kind requires us to write things that we may not have experienced firsthand. The problem comes in the execution.
For example, let's say you have a great deal of knowledge in medicine and you are reading a story where the nurse character does something completely ridiculous and the entire medical thing is mishandled. Obviously, the writer is not writing what they know. In reality, the average reader and intended audience don't know that and some couldn't care less how accurate it is because it's a fiction story.
Things to consider...
 You can’t write anything into your story that you don’t have firsthand experience with. If you don’t have first-hand experience, you need to do a huge amount of research so you’re excessively familiar with every single topic you’re writing about.
Familiarize yourself and understand what you’re writing about.
Know only what’s necessary and then move on. Getting too bogged down with the details can lead to distraction for both you and your readers.
Any part of your story that’s creativity-based (characters, theme, etc) instead of detail-based (edits, formatting, descriptions) should come from within you.
It’s okay to write things you aren’t familiar with, as long as you put in enough time and research into making those things realistic to your intended audience.
You don’t need to reach every single person out there. Know who your audience is and cater your story to them.
Some research may be necessary to make your plot or story details realistic to your intended audience.
It can be sorted out during the editing period – getting hung up on it can lead to blocks and frustration.
Don't forget the most important rule - just have fun and enjoy the process of creating!
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| | | The Ranch (E)
Dave and Suzanne are expectant parents. Yet, Suzanne can not forget Justin.
#2306031 by tracker  |
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Comments received from my last Drama Newsletter, "Tools of the Trade"
 Thank you both for sharing your comments and thoughts!
Osirantinous  wrote:
I like this newsletter, Lilli, and many of the things you've mentioned I have. I am, however, first and foremost pencil/paper writer. And I do mean pencil. Some of my stories are in pen but 95% are in pencil, and I have all sorts of pencils. Weeee. But, I'm not completely old-fashioned. I own Scrivener (actually have the old 1.9 and the newer V3 - both for PC) and the novels that I am serious about publishing are typed into there. As you say, great organisation and I can easily move things about etc etc. I do not like V3 though..... But I also have membership to Atticus (good for eBooks), Campfire (good for world building but also 'publishing' - so in that vein it's a bit like WDC), Now Novel and The Novel Factory (both old subscriptions purchased 'for life' back in the day, and membership to One Stop for Writers (I do love their thesaurus collections and templates for rounding out characters). I've a fair collection of writing books too but I've ever read one end-to-end. The stones sounds awesome for fiddling and thinking. I have a little fiddle box thing but I actually find flicking the arms of a bull-dog clip does wonders for me. Ah, but as long as I have plenty of pencils and paper (and pens, lets be honest), I'm a happy writer just waiting for when my characters sit down for a chat.
s  wrote:
My tools are simple: A paper dictionary; something to write on/with (pen & paper; computer & MS Word); a paper thesaurus; somewhere to write. That's it, and the thesaurus/dictionary are low priority. Music can help, but is not necessary. Other online tools have proven useless to me over the years (Grammerly is one I will NOT recommend, for example).
But, there is one more: I read Stephen King's On Writing every few years (the non-autobiography bits) just to keep my head in the game. The best writing book out there, bar none.
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Drama: December 27, 2023 Issue [#12334]
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