Monday 6 June 2016

What Do You Know?

with Sharon Burke

One of the first pieces of advice beginning writers receive is to write what they know.  At first glance, this idea sounds incredibly restrictive so I thought I’d explore it a little.

Author Nathan Englander believes “write what you know” is excellent advice, but sadly is often misunderstood. He argues it applies to emotions, not events. This makes sense to me as an aspiring romance author.  The characters in romantic novels experience wide ranging emotions with differing intensities: love, anger, jealousy, loss, happiness, fear, disgust. If you know what it feels like to be scared, then it should be easier to create plausible fear in your characters.



Marg Gilks an author of short stories and poetry argues “write what you know” applies to everything you feel, not just to emotions. “You know what your senses tell you, and other people share those sensations”.  I believe the best romantic novelists have an uncanny ability to take their readers on an emotional, highly sensory journey.  The romantic novels I enjoy the most capture my senses. I see and feel the sunlight and rain, hear the sounds of wind, running water and the tone of words spoken. I feel uncertainty, love, hope and turmoil just as the heroine and hero do.  I think this intensity of reader vicarious sensory experience makes romantic novels unique and special. The reader has the chance to develop a depth of empathy and connectedness that other genres struggle to match.



Fiction writers must be prepared to go beyond what they know. Valerie Parv stresses the importance of knowing your characters well and understanding their motivations. “You can’t write about real people unless you know them and understand why they do what they do.” She suggests many strategies to help with this including developing wide ranging interests, exploring both sides of a question and reading popular psychology books. I find popular psychology books tremendously helpful for “fleshing out” characters, and for matching their motivations and actions.



Finally, fiction writing by its very nature demands authors venture into the unknown.  The nybookeditors.com site states “We can’t limit ourselves to what we know. Instead, be open to what you want to know, what your characters know, and the great body of experiences some other writer before you has known.” I find this statement challenging, but tremendously exciting. Reading widely, and reflecting on ways in which romantic novels are constructed helps me to better understand the challenge of what I am attempting to do.



So where does that leave us?  I think we as romantic novelists utilise our sensory experiences and emotions within our writing. We should never be afraid to let our imaginations lead us on our writing journey. This is where some of the most fascinating parts of our profession lie. 

What do you think?  What does 'write what you know' mean to you?

I love to love…relationships as so important.
I love to laugh…the comedy in everyday life never ceases to amaze me.

I love to learn…life has so much to offer.

10 comments:

  1. Great post, Sharon! And I am convinced that everyone 'knows' more than they think they know... Everyone has a story in them. Sometimes it's also the little things, the minutiae, that make a story more realistic and wonderful for the reader. Because the author 'knew' what they were talking about...

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    1. Thank you Malvina. I think you are right about people knowing more than they think they do. I believe every experience we have builds our knowledge base - intellectually, emotionally and in a sensual way. I believe that all of our senses have a role to play in building memories.

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  2. I was once told that you had to be in our 30s before you could write a good book because before then you hadn't experienced enough of life. I'm not sure I totally agree as some people experience more in ther short lives than someone thier age should. Never the less as a writer we try to tap into as many emotional experiences as we can. Great post thanks Sharon.

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    1. Wow! Interesting thought Cassandra Samuels. From my own experience I think I had lots of life experience before thirty to draw on but I didn't have the skills to articulate them in a meaningful way.

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    2. That's a fascinating concept Cassandra! I wonder if being a bit older gives many authors more opportunity to reflect more on their experiences and integrate them into their lives thus making it easier to develop well rounded characters with clear motivations.

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    3. I with you totally on that, Cassandra. Young people often find themselves in situations that adults find extremely hard to deal with, e.g. a war errupts in their country and they, along with their parents, have to flee or risk death. Or a young couple die in an accident leaving their young child an orphan to be shipped around in the foster care system. Imagine the emotions a young person in either of these situations would experience and the aftereffects. These young have stories to tell.

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  3. Thanks for a thought-provoking post, Sharon. I particularly like the way you sum up with the idea that we shouldn't be afraid to let our imagination lead us on our writing journey. I love letting my imagination loose when writing about characters, settings and situations that exist purely in my head.

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    1. Thanks Marilyn. Letting your imagination loose is a fascinating and fun experience for me. My non-fiction writing experience provides less opportunity for this. That's why I love writing both fiction and non-fiction.

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  4. Hi Sharon. For me it's definitely about the emotion. My life experiences may not be the same (and in some instances definitely aren't) as the life experiences of the heroines in the stories I write but the emotions they feel, the anger, the sadness, the fear and joy and so on, are emotions I, too, have felt, and so I empathise with the characters and so their story is real to me. Letting my imagination loose makes the emotional journey a wonderful experience.

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  5. Hi Enisa, I agree with you. I think the emotional connection great romantic novelists establish with their readers is what makes their novels so special and so enjiyable to read.

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