Write What You Know

Yes, it's 1/14. It's just after midnight, so I haven't gone to bed yet, so I haven't broken my resolution to write every night before bed. :)

I'm sure you've already heard the directive to write what you know. That actually does work very well, especially if you're writing a story that takes place in modern times. If you haven't experienced something yourself or haven't done your research, your readers will know -- maybe not all of them, but something wont ring true to them.

One area that this is apparent is regarding sex. I read two novels fairly recently of which the authors were female. They were both authors who were new to me, and one I actually assumed to be male -- the name on the cover was abbreviated, and I don't usually read the author info. In each story, the male main characters had some physical experiences involving their sex organs. In the book by the abbreviated-name author, I thought, "This MUST have been written by a woman" and looked in the cover to confirm my suspicions. I have read some sexually explicit work by women, and women look at sex in a very different way from men. And a woman can't know how a kick in the nuts feels, just as a man can't know how carrying a baby in a womb feels (at least not with today's technology!). These authors did not do their research. The rest of each of the novels was very good, but that small lack of truth somewhat tarnished each story for me.

If you want to write about something you are not familiar with, research it. Otherwise, stick to things you know.