WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW

Many writers will tell you that you should “write what you know.”  While I agree with that to some extent and even use that as one of the tips to writing fiction, it bears emphasis that you don’t have to draw from personal experience in order to write an engaging scene.

For example, you can write a space capsule scene without ever having flown in space.  However, to do a credible job of that you have to really understand what it is like to fly in space.  How do you do that?  Research, of course.  Talk to people who have done it.  Study what’s been written about it, look at films and photographs.

I have a unique perspective since I am both a psychologist and a journalist.  My mom used to say that I could ask more questions than anyone she’d ever met.  (I learned that from her when I was a teenager.)

When you ask questions, you learn.  But you also have to pay attention to the answers and you have to be able to put yourself inside the emotional  ether that surrounds those situations.  What did it look like?  How did it feel?  What were the fears?

So yes, you “write what you know” but you also “write what you research.”  The Look For Me series is a product of that.

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