tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post5296759990426583528..comments2024-03-27T19:24:05.285-05:00Comments on Stupefying Stories Magazine: On Writing: The Curse of “Write What You Know” • by Bruce Bethke~brbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845253722980029012noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post-88195802671009229442020-07-03T08:14:51.271-05:002020-07-03T08:14:51.271-05:00And the possums know a *lot* about you, Mark!And the possums know a *lot* about you, Mark!~brbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10845253722980029012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post-46097323224335216722020-07-02T19:53:25.044-05:002020-07-02T19:53:25.044-05:00I know a bit about possums.... :)I know a bit about possums.... :)Mark Keigleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11057982108264843405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post-36659182766911413182020-06-30T16:07:08.032-05:002020-06-30T16:07:08.032-05:00“Write what you know” seems like, as you said, it’...“Write what you know” seems like, as you said, it’s taken too literally; a lot of aspiring writers take it to mean “Write about your specific life experiences and thoughts and people you know,” but what your average writer “knows” is a little broader than that. How malls and public spaces are laid out wherever you live, general telephone etiquette, how to order a pizza in [insert town here], what TV shows were watched last year…all of these little things go into making up the world we live in. Whatever genre you’re working in, these little details—whether they’re on the page or just in the writer’s head—help make a milieu believable. Putting those details, or reasonable facsimiles thereof, into a fictional world help ground that reality, no matter what kind of wonky shit the characters get up to.<br /> Having survived a respectable MFA program, I can say that in my experience, the dullest fiction I read was by writers who kept their focus strictly within only what they “knew.” That always seemed like a failure of imagination to me. Why not extrapolate a little? When did research, talking to other people, or people watching stop being considered useful? Some of that reluctance is probably due to fear of getting things wrong, but damn. That’s what multiple drafts and beta readers are for. I wrote plenty of dull “literary” fiction as a grad student, but I also tried to branch out a little and get into areas I had no experience in. I wasn’t successful for the most part, but them’s the breaks.<br />Invictushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15084084077090130137noreply@blogger.com