[ SECRET POST #2797 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2797 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 085 secrets from Secret Submission Post #400.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I actually completely disagree with "write what you know." That's sort of total bullshit. Writing fiction has always been about imagination, about stretching your mind and fantasizing about possibilities. Things that you haven't experienced or things you like to wonder about because they didn't happen. And no, I'm not talking about scifi/fantasy or anything. That has very little to do with imaginative writing.

Now it's a good thing to mix in some of what you know into your writing, to give it an authentic feel and because writing is also the writer's self-expression, but if "what you know" is the only thing you ever write? No. This "write what you know" bullshit is the reason so-called "serious literature" is overrun with a repetitive mind-numbing parade of middle-aged upper-middle-class educated white guys who are convinced their vague dissatisfaction with life is the most meaningful feeling in the world (or as I once heard someone else on F!S awesomely say, "english professors contemplating adultery.)

Research though, yes, I agree with, if the thing you're writing about is an actual thing that other people in the world actually know something about.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think "write what you know" should be a hard and fast rule, but I don't feel that people who write about their own experiences are doing anything wrong either. There's nothing wrong with soldiers who write about war, people who have been cheated on who write about adultery, or discriminated peoples writing about their experiences.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

That I agree about. It's when writers write *only* about what they know, repeatedly, in multiple books, that it becomes really annoying. Case in point: John Updike.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

There's a difference, though, between applying 'write what you know' to the plot (English professor contemplates adultery), and applying it to, say, the motivation of your characters (English professor who's contemplating adultery writes about a civil servant who's contemplating betraying his country).

That's what I meant by drawing on your own experiences to get inside a character's head.

[kamino_neko]

I actually completely disagree with "write what you know." That's sort of total bullshit.

I'm not sure who it was that said it, but I've always agreed with 'Don't write what you know, know what you write.' ie: don't rely on your own experiences, but make sure you've got a good grasp of the parts that are outside your experience.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

I actually completely disagree with "write what you know." That's sort of total bullshit. Writing fiction has always been about imagination, about stretching your mind and fantasizing about possibilities.

And, like most, you misunderstand what "write what you know" actually means.

[(Anonymous)]

My imagination is something I know.