Sarah Gibbard Cook
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Writing What You Know

9/26/2016

5 Comments

 
​I’ve never been murdered or committed a murder. Outside of pure memoir, you can’t build a narrative by writing only what you know.

So you can limit what you write, or you can stretch what you know. No surprise that I prefer the latter. Authors of nonfiction and fiction alike do intensive research. Beyond libraries, archives, and the Internet, they’re out there talking to people and visiting places.

Some authors of police procedurals have worked as homicide detectives. Many more list a police department in their acknowledgements, with thanks for showing the author the inner workings of the job. Lately I’ve asked friends about dyslexia and cat behavior. Drafting a scene of fifteenth-century hand-to-hand combat in all its gory detail, I may consult an expert in historical swordsmanship.

​Imagination takes us down haunted corridors we’ll never walk in real life. But wise writers walk down similar corridors, when possible, even without the ghosts. When you haven’t been there, go as close as you can to avoid getting it just plain wrong. I once read a student essay that described Holland as brilliantly colored with tulips on every hillside. It sounds plausible until you see a photograph of the flat, flat tulip fields of Holland, with nary a hill in sight.
5 Comments
Lisa
9/26/2016 09:51:25 am

This reminds me of our book discussion last night. We have one woman who never, ever finds a book plausible because SHE would never behave that way. She pretty much dominates the conversation for the next two hours in that vein of criticism. In other words, she believes that the author got it wrong. The rest of us maintain that the writer chose purposefully to only expose us to certain information, from the writer's point of view. So my question to you is, what do you feel that the writer absolutely needs to get "right"? (BTW, her comments do NOT make for a better discussion, because she's very dogmatic and closed off to any other point of view, even when that view is what we surmise is the author's POV.)

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Sarah link
9/26/2016 10:44:21 am

Motives and emotions are subjective; one person's plausible is implausible to another. We all have different experiences. But if everyone who knows cats says cats would never do what I have a cat doing, there's a problem. Writing fiction set in Rhodes, of course I'll make up whole streets and neighborhoods, but I want to avoid bloopers to which anyone who's been there responds, "But the harbor is nowhere near the Palace."

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Jeri
9/26/2016 10:12:56 am

Lisa, join another club. Life is too short to spend two hours listening to someone with little or no imagination nor consideration for the rest of the group.

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Sarah link
9/26/2016 10:54:33 am

Absolutely, life is too short. And discussion is pointless when participants are dogmatic. Why should people bother exchanging viewpoints if they aren't open to new insights and perspectives?

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Lisa
9/26/2016 11:03:21 am

Well, we've (I've) become quite stern with her — her behavior can be controlled if we are (I am) rude and cut her off as soon as she begins that she — or her barn cat — would never do that. After I cut her off, she actually seems to relax and often makes some good contributions. BTW, she also checks out the facts, and she will be the one to tell us if the harbor is nowhere near the Palace, after which we'll discuss whether that's important to the story, which sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

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