Write Every Day: 12 November 02019

[silveradept]

Greetings! This is the Write Every Day Check-In Post for 12 November 02019.

Sometimes I think of the adage "Write what you know," which is sometimes a thing that I say when people talk about putting into stories things that they are either interested in or have experienced in their lives. Like many adages, if you only followed it, we'd end up having a lot fewer stories. At the same time, we could stand to have fewer stories of people appropriating or caricaturing the lived experiences of others. So, maybe "Write what you know and stay in your lane" is more the thing being offered. Except that sometimes, with research and care and sensitivity reading and a lot of things designed to make things not appropriative, exploitative or otherwise terrible, it's okay to have a story written that's outside of your lane. But there's still a lot more that can be done to bring and otherwise promote people writing their own voices before we think about stories that have done their research and gotten things put together and can do well.

The reason his comes to mind is that in today's writing material, I am about to include a family story. It's not something that I've experienced personally, thankfully, as it's not a completely pleasant story. But that also complicates the question of writing what you know. It's something in the family, told as a funny story or two, and it's going to be really useful in not only adding words but helping metaphorically explain something to someone who's having a bad day and not feeling all that great about themselves.

I also sketched out the possibility of another songfic, based on the potential implications of new canon, but assignments come first-ish, so maybe when there's enough of a cushion of words to feel like I can divert my attention for a bit, I'll think about that one. Maybe after the other fic that's been patiently waiting for me to get on with it, as that one is going to be much more comedic.

Plot bunnies breed if you're not looking at them and trying to get them closer to completion.

How are things going for all of you?

Here's the tally so far:

Day One: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, ofmonstrouswords, sanguinity, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Two: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, ofmonstrouswords, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, teigh_corvus, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Three: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, sierranovembr, silveradept, st_aurafina, sylvanwitch, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Four: alexcat, alexseanchai, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, nafs, redsixwing, sanguinity, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Five: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Six: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, treonb, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Seven: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Eight: alexcat, alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, treonb, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Nine: alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, sierranovembr, silveradept, sylvanwitch, treonb, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Ten: alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, treonb, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Eleven: alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, bladespark, carenejeans, chanter1944, china_shop, cornerofmadness, lferion, redsixwing, sakana17, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, treonb, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Day Twelve: alexseanchai, auroracloud, azurelunatic, cornerofmadness, carenejeans, china_shop, lferion, redsixwing, sanguinity, silveradept, sylvanwitch, treonb, umadoshi, yasaman, ysilme

Comments

[auroracloud]

I managed 450 words of the novel this time, as well as doing a bit of brainstorming/plotting for this podcast drama idea I've got. And I started editing my Femslash Exchange fic, thankfully discovered that at least the beginning is nowhere near as terrible as I was afraid it would be.

If I only wrote what I knew, I wouldn't be writing much. a) My life is mostly boring and about things I'm not into writing about, and b) even if I try, I run into a block the size of a continent if I try to write about anything too close to my life.

There is a point about being careful not to appropriate realities of the kinds of lives you haven't lived, especially when talking about marginalized communities who anyway get their stories told mostly by others without their own input. But that's different, though I don't yet know exactly how to explain how.

Anyway, the way I use things I know is that I may write about people in past centuries or in future faraway planets, but I give them the sorts of feelings, thoughts and interests I'm familiar with, even though adapted into their culture. So in my historical fiction, the girls may still be book geeks or feel like they don't fit in, but their day-to-day realities are very different from mine. Meanwhile, reading discussions about cultural appropriation have made me understand that it's probably not my place to write historical fiction about the Sami or the Romany or other ethnic minorities in my country, not before those people get their voices out first. And if I include them as minor characters, I should check with a member of that group (or several) if I'm doing it respectfully and with correct facts, in addition to doing my own research.

[silveradept]

Yay for finding you've done better than you thought you had.

That's a neat way of writing what you know. Probably because some themes are relevant, even in completely different societies. Usually a safer bet than writing a story steeped in stereotype about another culture.