It's pretty sound advice, if you think about it. I mean, it's pretty safe to say that a pampered suburbanite teenager probably wouldn't know what it's like to mine for blood diamonds in Africa, so I seriously doubt if one did, the writing would be any good. But, considering many young authors have found success in writing about suburbia, it's a decent assumption that's the safer bet.
There in lies the problem...
While my life is fairly amusing at times, it's barely noteworthy. I don't drink that much, therefore I've never been drunk. I don't smoke cigarettes or marijuana, and have never partaken in illicit drugs. I was considered a good kid (often being mistaken as Mormon by those who had never heard me speak), so I was never invited to high school or college parties. I had only a few friends, and have far too much respect to turn them into characters in my stories.
My experiences in that regard are extremely limited. And, although I still consider myself book-smart, I really don't know a hell of a lot.
What I do know are my passions. Movies, music, TV shows, and books -- comics, graphic novels, and traditional books.
Take Mild Mannered for instance.
A little over a decade ago, I developed the concept for the series in hopes that it would be a TV show to eventually play on the same night as NBC's Chuck and Heroes. Clearly this didn't happen. The biggest reason it didn't is that I didn't trust the system, nor my ability to write the scripts. I didn't trust that the show would be on the air long enough to tell the story I wanted to tell in all its intricacies, nor was I able to write scripts for television (a skill I have yet to learn, by the way). I considered movies, either on the big screen or TV movies, but, again, my ability to write action sequences in script form is lacking, and, even if I spent the time honing them, what guarantee would there be to getting all of them filmed, seeing that I would need at least three or four films to tell the story I want to in full.
So, book form it is!
From there, it pretty much wrote itself. Paul Pritchard, a snarky pop culture junkie good with puzzles. Yeah, that's me. Not going to lie. Thaddeus Bell, a dark, brooding violent soul wandering aimlessly alone. Okay, that's not me, but that's an amalgamation of characters like Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Bride from Kill Bill, and the title character in El Mariachi. These are characters I've come to love, and, with the passion for books and movies I enjoy, I came to formulate a story that I feel others would love as much as I would.
While this may not be how other authors do it, it's working for me pretty damn well thus far. The more I write, the more I'm figuring out what works or not. Sure, it means that I'm having to completely rewrite some of my previous and current works, but I'd rather do that than give my readers subpar work.
From what I've heard thus far, it's working for my audience as well.
Funny thing, writing what you know. Honestly only about 30% of what I write (yes, that's a made up number ;D) is stuff I actually know. Currently I'm writing about a prisoner who's stuck with his captors on a ship in the middle of the sea. I've never been at sea before but I can imagine I wouldn't be too happy (probably seasick) to be there.
ReplyDeleteWriting what you know is a bit of a limitation. Writing what you don't know and imagining what it would be like has limits, but you know, for a broad imagination, sky's the limit.
Overall your readers will let you know whether or not your words are believable. Really stinks when a scene you love has to be taken out because it's not really believable, or interesting. :)