THE Group for Authors! discussion

Good advice? Or not? I'm guest blogging on that topic today and invite your input at http://debbie-peterson.blogspot.com/

What we know might sound like a good place to start - often my work starts with something autobiographical (heavily edited) to provide a framework, a foundation or just the starting point - but then the muse (addicted to cookies) opens the curtains and throws the duvet back and digs me in the ribs and grabs my head and points my bleary eyes at Wikipedia and says "research what you don't know" ... perhaps we can only truly write about what we experience on some level (if only a dream) - my knowledge is growing, therefore my subjects - but what is to know anything - write what you are inspired to write and the rest follows in it's wake - without the leap of faith we would all be journalists commenting on the news ...

Alp knows nothing but has a cookie jar

That leap of faith you refer to is what I'm discussing in the blog post. Fiction, if it works, is based on some kernel of authentic experience, even if it's only an emotional experience.

Helen wrote: "That leap of faith you refer to is what I'm discussing in the blog post. Fiction, if it works, is based on some kernel of authentic experience, even if it's only an emotional experience."
I agree.

Hi every body
There is a difference between those who lived to hear the experiences life ,and your experience,But to feel their pain and feel this is very important ..
( English is not my native language)
I m Rima Al khany writer

I just read the blog, thus I realize I'm a bit late to throw in on this discussion.

I've written three books in three genres. A technical how to on ballistic evidence, a memoir and a mystery/thriller. All centered around subjects I know very well –law enforcement.

I think writing what you know is a great idea but it shouldn't limit your imagination with fiction. In my third book (and now my fourth that's cranking away), my protagonist is half Native American. I know his profession but I don't –or didn't– know about biracial issues. Fort that I've read and researched (with informants) and I think I've pulled it off (my Amazon 27 reviewers have given it 4.9 stars). It's the same with my meth-fein antagonist. Meth? No, just a lot of coffee (and an informant).

So... you've spent thirty years driving truck and you want to write a murder story? I'd suggest you write it from a first-person viewpoint and have your protagonist be a truck driver. At least for your first... And then if you want to write another War of the Words, have at it.

I know I'm a little late in participating in the discussion, but I have just joined the group and had to say that the "write what you know" saying is the best advice as an author I have ever heard!

Most, if not all my stories have developed from some life experience I've had. No matter how mundane. And I believe it makes the writing more pure.

While "writing what you know" doesn't apply in all instances - as far as we're aware, Shakespeare didn't murder his wife - it does help if you draw upon your own experiences / emotions in your writing. You'd be amazed where it might come in handy, whether it's that semaphore course you took years ago or that job in a patent store when you were at uni. There are few things as awkward as reading scenes about murder investigations or medical procedures where it's clear that the author gleaned all their knowledge from TV - and dated knowledge at that.

That's why we have research. I have friends who have experience working with explosives (military experience if you were wondering) so they're filling in some gaps on the novel I'm working on. Another friend helps me with forensic details. Georgia government websites detail the duties of state police, memoirs by sixties radicals give me the background for my protagonist. And so on.

Sometimes your own experiences are a wonderful framework to start off your story. And when you're writing about things you did not do yourself it is even better if you can get hold of people who have real life experience. The little details they know make the story sparkle
I totally agree with Fraser: there's no substitute for real research to flesh it out and give depth to your narrative. And Wikipedia is just a first step, handy to verify dates and names.
In the old days I would spend a lot of time in the library and nowadays I'm glad Google enables me to access books on the subject I'm researching.