{"id":1381,"date":"2024-06-14T09:17:20","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T08:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2024-06-14T09:17:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T08:17:21","slug":"day-12-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/14\/day-12-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting\/","title":{"rendered":"DAY 12 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DON\u2019T WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the writing world is full of so-called rules. Often they are attributed to famous authors, when they are nothing of the sort. For example, you can often see \u201cJ.K.Rowling\u2019s Rules For Writing\u201d appearing on the internet, even though she has flatly denied EVER talking about rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the great writing adages is: \u201cwrite what you know.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can understand why people say that. As an author, you don’t want readers picking over your stories, telling you things that you’ve got factually incorrect. That’s not a good look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, there is a danger of being accused of cultural appropriation, writing from the point of view of someone you don\u2019t represent. Some clarification: you can write about<\/strong><\/em> characters and situations which don\u2019t directly affect you, the writer; however, the writer should be careful when attempting to write from the point of view<\/strong><\/em> of someone who they don\u2019t represent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an anecdote: I\u2019ve always tried to write inclusive characters in my stories. Characters who aren\u2019t me. I love writing characters who have some of the same character traits as me, and readers will sometimes point to one of them and say \u201cthat\u2019s you, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I include many female characters in my stories. I\u2019m not a female. So I don\u2019t \u201cknow\u201d what being female is like. This was brought into stark view when I started a psychological thriller – a woman in jeopardy<\/em> story. I thought it was going well for the first couple of chapters, but then I offered it up for critique. And the feedback? \u201cIt didn\u2019t work\u201d<\/em>, \u201cI didn\u2019t feel the jeopardy\u201d<\/em>, and worst of all \u201cI could tell it was written by a man.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ouch.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that, for me, is the clear distinction between writing about<\/strong><\/em> a character and writing as<\/strong><\/em> a character. That book has been shelved, by the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, having got all of that out of the way, what\u2019s wrong with writing what you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that rule was true, there would be no futuristic sci-fi. Nobody knows what\u2019s going to happen ten, twenty, a hundred years hence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that rule was true, I\u2019d always be writing about working class pensioners who spent a life in engineering, and have now retired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that rule was true, I\u2019d always be writing cycling stories, stories about watching TV crime dramas, and stories about red wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m going to offer up a different \u201crule\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ONLY WRITE WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DON\u2019T WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW Unfortunately, the writing world is full of so-called rules. Often they are attributed to famous authors, when they are nothing of the sort. For example, you can often see \u201cJ.K.Rowling\u2019s Rules For Writing\u201d appearing on the internet, even though she has flatly denied EVER talking about rules. One of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,6,7,8,15,16,17],"tags":[70,73,46,54,71,97,25,98],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-inspiration","category-mindful-writing","category-my-writing","category-thinking","category-writing","category-writing-on-writing","tag-advice","tag-beginner","tag-creativity","tag-success","tag-tips","tag-write-what-you-know","tag-writing-2","tag-writing-rules"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/BLOG-Write-What-You-Know_Depositphotos_167312302_S.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5y3CH-mh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1383,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions\/1383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}