WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW.
Yeah, I just saw this terrible "advice" on Yahoo Answers again. And kind of snapped. And ranted. I shall reproduce it here for posterity (because it's entirely possible it will be reported for "abuse"--which I will fight):
Write what you know, yes. And then research the rest. If all we ever wrote about was what we KNEW, I wouldn't have stuck an "end" at the bottom of my zombie story this morning. I looked up cerebrospinal fluid, and theories of zombie physiology, and mapped from Lampasas, TX, to Austin. I looked up a map of the University of Texas at Austin. I checked to see what sort of medical research they do there. ALL of it played into my plot--and I didn't know ANY of it when I started.
For other story-related things, I've looked up 9mm gunshot exit wounds. California firearms laws. Stockholm Syndrome. MRI's. Height and weight averages for men. Needle placement for an IV. Guns in general and particular. Defibrillators. Whether beheading kills a bee instantly. PTSD, flashbacks, and panic attacks. The list is endless.
But if I just stuck with "write what I know," I wouldn't get very far. Writers are not endless encyclopedias of knowledge AND THAT'S OKAY. It's just a matter of knowing where to find the information you need. And, yes, asking questions on Yahoo Answers is a perfectly legitimate way of doing it. However, I'd verify any information you got from here with an outside source, because some people here act like they know what they're talking about when they actually don't.
[redacted paragraph on basic research tools and what she could use to find what she's looking for]
"Write what you know" assumes that you can't find stuff out. How boring would that be?
If these kids were stuck with "writing what they knew," then all they'd write about is high school. If I stuck with "writing what I know" I'd never have written either of my novels--or (probably), any of my short stories. I can't think of a single one (not even the Bunny From Hell story) that I didn't have to do SOME research on. If all we wrote was "what we know," then where would fantasy and SF come from? How many SF writers have an actual background in hard science? Some of us, sure (hey, I've got a degree in Biology I never use), but not all. Probably not even most.
I am so sick and tired of seeing people get their chops busted for asking a perfectly legitimate research question on Yahoo Answers. Sanctimonious idiots spouting a slogan they don't even know the meaning of and sounding all authoritative and shit.
GAH.
Write what you know, yes. And then research the rest. If all we ever wrote about was what we KNEW, I wouldn't have stuck an "end" at the bottom of my zombie story this morning. I looked up cerebrospinal fluid, and theories of zombie physiology, and mapped from Lampasas, TX, to Austin. I looked up a map of the University of Texas at Austin. I checked to see what sort of medical research they do there. ALL of it played into my plot--and I didn't know ANY of it when I started.
For other story-related things, I've looked up 9mm gunshot exit wounds. California firearms laws. Stockholm Syndrome. MRI's. Height and weight averages for men. Needle placement for an IV. Guns in general and particular. Defibrillators. Whether beheading kills a bee instantly. PTSD, flashbacks, and panic attacks. The list is endless.
But if I just stuck with "write what I know," I wouldn't get very far. Writers are not endless encyclopedias of knowledge AND THAT'S OKAY. It's just a matter of knowing where to find the information you need. And, yes, asking questions on Yahoo Answers is a perfectly legitimate way of doing it. However, I'd verify any information you got from here with an outside source, because some people here act like they know what they're talking about when they actually don't.
[redacted paragraph on basic research tools and what she could use to find what she's looking for]
"Write what you know" assumes that you can't find stuff out. How boring would that be?
If these kids were stuck with "writing what they knew," then all they'd write about is high school. If I stuck with "writing what I know" I'd never have written either of my novels--or (probably), any of my short stories. I can't think of a single one (not even the Bunny From Hell story) that I didn't have to do SOME research on. If all we wrote was "what we know," then where would fantasy and SF come from? How many SF writers have an actual background in hard science? Some of us, sure (hey, I've got a degree in Biology I never use), but not all. Probably not even most.
I am so sick and tired of seeing people get their chops busted for asking a perfectly legitimate research question on Yahoo Answers. Sanctimonious idiots spouting a slogan they don't even know the meaning of and sounding all authoritative and shit.
GAH.