Writing Beyond What You Know

Imagination, research, and asking lots of questions?

I'd say the same way an actor goes about protraying someone they're not; A combination of research, empathy and imagination.



MM - being too simplistic, no doubt.

Birol said:

Most of us are surrounded by people who are very much like ourselves.

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It's hard to stretch when you're surrounded. Break free of your own norm, and seek out those you wish to write about.

(ETA: in a general - "we should all do that" way)

Birol said:

Who do you ask the questions? Most of us are surrounded by people who are very much like ourselves.

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I question myself, putting myself in their place as much as I can, much like an actor (which I also am, sometimes). I also read firsthand accounts of similar people online, etc when I can.

I think deep down, humans are all the same. We all have similar hopes, dreams, fears, and motivations, and we yearn for food, water, shelter, love, etc. So once you hold true to that basic humanity, the rest you can compensate by using research, interviews, observation, and imagination. The problem with using templates -- a middle eastern man would behave this and that way -- is that sometimes it's easy to get trapped into stereotypes.

I do think actual experience or at least observation is very helpful. That's why a writer would actually spend time at a police station, or a morgue, or the battlefield, etc. to get a feel of what it really is like. Having a wide circle of friends or acquaintances of all backgrounds also helps -- that certainly helps me.

MidnightMuse said:

I'd say the same way an actor goes about protraying someone they're not; A combination of research, empathy and imagination.



MM - being too simplistic, no doubt.

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Yep. You can't go wrong with empathy and research.

Good question. I struggle with this. In two separate novels I had antagonist characters who had beliefs very different from mine.

I don't know if I took the empathy too far or not, but I tried so hard to be fair and well-rounded in my presentation of them that they became really boring. In one novel the the character became so sympathetic that my plot fell apart.

And reading - read about other people.

Try writing a sympathetic character with beliefs very different from your own. Get as much experience as you can.

Questions

Birol said:

Who do you ask the questions? Most of us are surrounded by people who are very much like ourselves.

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I was lucky, in a way, to grow up poor, and to have spent years in the company of backwoods Appalachian people, to have the run of seedy bars, etc. But I've also, by choice, spent a large part of my life going to some new place each weekend, even if it's just a local political dinner thrown by a political party opposite of my own, or a chili supper held by the local PTA, or a square dance, or a mountain man festival, or a choke and puke restaurant. And everywhere I go I talk to people. More important, I let people talk to me while I listen. Just about everyone loves to talk about themselves and the problems they face. The person willing to listen is a rare commodity.

There are many ways to do such research, including a lot of reading, but being surrounded by people much like ourselves is always a choice. I've found that most of the best writers out there find ways of spending a lot of time with people from every class and division of life.

The ability and willingness to spend time outside of your comfort zone and regular assortment of friends and colleagues is invaluable.

Newspapers and libraries and bulletin boards everywhere have upcoming events on them.

But I would say there is no such person as a single, illiterate mother who has never heard of birth control. Every person in the US, and I'd say 99.99% of the people on the planet, has heard about at least two forms of birth control, no matter how backwater they are, and no matter how illiterate they are.

It isn't ignorance of birth control methods that makes a women get pregnant, it's not using the methods they know about, and there are many, many reasons for choosing not to use birth control, ranging from the fact that the condom is still the main choice for many, and large numbers of men hate using condoms, to the belief that you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex, to being drunk, to actually wanting to have a baby.

Being middle class in no way means you can't spend a good amount of time with people of the lowest classes. This is easy, and takes little effort.

Something much more difficult, infinitely more difficult, is finding ways to spend time with the super rich.

Maryn said:

I have to ask--what's a 'choke and puke' restaurant? And do they offer coupons?

Maryn, not familiar with the term

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I think it's also known as a "greasy spoon." The food, to me, is usually better than expensive restaurants.

You find a piece of yourself that understands that person. You break it off, bend it around in your hands, you blow on it until finally it breathes itself, and then you send it walking and you watch where it goes.

It does things you didn't expect, and things you didn't ask it to do. And when it ends, you understand where it was going all along.

Least, that's how I've always thought of it.

That and reasearch.

Certain things are common to everyone - loneliness, doubt, anger, mistrust - I expect half the battle is figuring out a series of events for your character to arrive at these places that we're all familiar with.

BardSkye said:

I think it's also known as a "greasy spoon." The food, to me, is usually better than expensive restaurants.

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Yep. Just depends on what part of the country you live in. Some choke & pukes/greasy spoons have wonderful food, and others have cooks that scoop dropped food back off the floor and onto the grill. I once saw a cook at a choke & puke swat a fly with his spatula, and then use it to flip burgers.

Spiny Norman said:

Certain things are common to everyone - loneliness, doubt, anger, mistrust - I expect half the battle is figuring out a series of events for your character to arrive at these places that we're all familiar with.

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True, but the reasons behind the loneliness, doubt, anger, mistrust, etc., can be very, very different from one group/class to another, and even from person to person within the same group.

Jamesaritchie said:

True, but the reasons behind the loneliness, doubt, anger, mistrust, etc., can be very, very different from one group/class to another, and even from person to person within the same group.

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I thought that was sort of what I said? Maybe?

This is actually a rather timely question for me. I've just begun work on a story where the two primary characters come from a world that I'm only tangentially familiar with. After only a short time, I realized that it will require a great deal of research to get a feel for the world these characters live in, so I've just decided to mark out the next 6 months or so to do just that. Usually, I don't research enough, so giving myself that much time to explore the world of my story is a bit of a breakthrough for me.

But no matter how much research a writer does, there still comes a point where he has to rely on his own powers of empathy. So far, it's allowed me to fill in any gaps that I'm left with.

There's no way we can know everything by just doing research. We can't know exactly how people feel or experience without going through their lives. The only way we can do, as writers, is to simulate that verisimilitude. There's always going to be someone who will say, "But that's not how it is." I remember someone arguing about something I wrote and told me, "But that's not how the Chinese are; I know, I lived there for three years." Meanwhile, I AM Chinese and grew up in Asia. That tells you you can please everyone, and everyone brings in their own unique points of view. All you can do is to do your best and think in those people's shoes, and try to understand them the best you can.

Spiny Norman said:

I thought that was sort of what I said? Maybe?

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Could have been. I didn't read it that way, which may have been my mistake. You have to know quite a bit about a given type of person to get the right series of events which produce the right emotion.

You can't get all of this through "book learnin"." There is no substitute for getting out and meeting people, socializing with them, learning who they are and what makes them tick.

maestrowork said:

"But that's not how the Chinese are; I know, I lived there for three years." .

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It has been said that it takes anyone twenty years to get to know their own home town, and the people who live there. I suspect there's a lot of truth in this.

Of course, it has also been said that an outsider will often see the truth invisible to the native. There's probably more than a little truth in this, as well.

maestrowork said:

I think deep down, humans are all the same. We all have similar hopes, dreams, fears, and motivations, and we yearn for food, water, shelter, love, etc. So once you hold true to that basic humanity, the rest you can compensate by using research, interviews, observation, and imagination. The problem with using templates -- a middle eastern man would behave this and that way -- is that sometimes it's easy to get trapped into stereotypes.

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I couldnt agree more....

I read a lot of books, so I assimilate knowledge as I read, and that comes in handy.

I do research, but regrettably I'm a lazy person when it comes to those sorts of things. So often I'll make it up as I go along and then go back and question its plausibility while editing. This is probably one of my biggest limitations when it comes to my writing and something on which I should probably work to improve.

I try to draw on my own experience as much as possible, although that is limited by my age and location. I can extrapolate a lot when it comes to characters, etc., from this information.

I find it hardest to get the little things right, especially when it comes to matters of spatial sense. I have bad spatial sense, and I can't translate an arbitrary measurement (like five kilometres) into a practical distance (like "from here to the supermarket"). So when my characters go places, I've got no idea how far they're travelling or how long it would take them to get there. Luckily, lots of people don't have my poor sense of distance and are happy to help me out with this.

Now if only I can find a practising wizard...