LIFELINES – August 05 – WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW

This rule, so often spouted in popular writing magazines, makes you groan with boredom or admonish yourself for having such limited knowledge. I know it does that to me. But wait.
What is imagination if it doesn’t begin with what we know and move on into realms of delight and scenarios that stem from the words ‘What if?’

Did Adam Thorpe live in the 15th Century to write his novel about Ulverton through the ages? Did Yann Martel sail across the ocean with a tiger especially to write his novel, Life of Pi? No. It’s true that both of these authors researched their subjects; and their reason for doing so was a passion for the idea. That’s the key.

Research? I hear you shudder. Not everyone wants to do research and in my opinion it isn’t essential in order to write an engaging story. It’s true that you’ll want to – and *should * do so - to ensure facts are right but it’s perfectly possible to build new, imagined, material into a story without research and still make it completely believable. There are plenty of examples in my collection of stories entitled Rebuilding Heaven. Do you think I know more than anyone else what it’s like to be a cardboard box? In the past I’ve written from the viewpoint of a prostitute (Mrs Gillamore, published in Homegrown, 2001) and a good number of other unlikely characters – I won’t give them away here because some of the fun for the reader is working out who’s narrating.

The difficulty in writing something you don’t know is in getting started. Research can kill a passion if you do it too soon. Once you’ve got into (really into) the character in your story then all kinds of things can come from within yourself that you had no idea would come out. Get it written! Write it from your heart and polish it until you feel passionate about it. *Then * do a spot of research to check it’s believable. You’ll be surprised at how much you want to learn this way. You’ll also find you research more knowledge than you need to; and who knows, it might stimulate another, completely new story: starting of course, with what you know.

© Bernie Ross 2005