What to write when you can’t “write what you know.”

by Ruth Harris

One of the primo, Number One “rules” for writers is write what you know.

Writing what you know is generally excellent advice for writers who are in the early stages of their careers. Knowing your setting — whether it’s geographical, professional,  familial, is one less issue you’ll have to face when you’re still not yet completely comfortable with fiction’s basic craft elements — narrative, backstory, plot, dialogue, character.

But—

What if you can’t — or don’t want to — write what you know?

Because —

• If you do, you’ll lose your job.
• You’ll get kicked out of school. Or your book club.
• Your friends will desert you and your enemies will revel in your misery.
• Your relatives will never speak to you again, much less invite you to a wedding or even Thanksgiving dinner.
• Your boss/colleagues will badmouth you.
• Your parents will disown you.
• Your crazy ex will sue you.
• Your beefy, tattooed neighbor — who turns on his weed whacker at seven AM on Sunday morning — will come after you with a hammer/hacksaw/baseball bat.
• You’ve already written eight cozy mysteries/horror novels/romances set in the same charming small town, but now the well has run dry.
• You’ve already written what you know and you’ve run out of ideas/inspiration.

Or—

• You’ve got a satisfying number of books behind you, and the time has come to refresh.
• Circumstances beyond your control have resulted in a long lapse between books and you need to restart your career.
• You’re bored and restless, and anxious to try something new.
• You’re at a point in your career where you wish to expand your horizons.

No matter the reason, you need to find something new and/or different to write about, something that excites you, inspires you but also keeps you out of trouble (and jail).

Write what you know — but not exactly.

Anne and I have both offered tips about how to safely use “real life” in fiction.

Anne explores how and when to fictionalize real life.

I explain exactly what I did to turn a real life drama into bestselling fiction.

But what if you have to/want to write what you don’t know?

How do you “try something new,” but don’t overreach and get in over your head?

Write something different, but not too different.

If you write sweet romance, a jump to space opera doesn’t make much sense, but a shift to second chance romance does.

If you write procedural mystery, a move to urban fantasy seems a bridge too far, but a move to Sherlock-type MC doesn’t.

If you write domestic suspense, a switch to space aliens defies logic, but a small town mystery doesn’t.

The point is that a huge leap away from your genre might be too much. For you — and for your readers.

But a step to the side does make sense.

If you write thrillers, a move to action-adventure will give you a chance to try something new, but still take advantage of your skill at superior plotting and credible fight scenes.

If you write sci-fi, a move to space opera might make sense.

If you write horror, consider a move to paranormal thriller.

If you write contemporary women’s fiction, consider historical women’s fiction.

Don’t however, jump from 21^st Century women, their career crises and boy friend problems to Regency debutantes who must find a husband. Readers who love whatever historical period you’re thinking about are very knowledgable about the details, and will jump on you for any misstep.

Instead, perhaps go back to the end of the 20^th Century when you were younger than you are now but remember some of the songs, books, celebrities, political issues and fashions. A Google query will turn up highlights, headlines and notable events of whatever year you choose.

You’ll easily find out who was president, whether the economy was good or not so good, what products were newly introduced, what singers were ruling the charts, and how your—or your character’s—favorite team did that year.

The background and references will be different — but also familiar. You will have a whole new range of conflicts and characters to write about without risking an avalance of one-star reviews from readers who are experts in Victorian needlework, Regency decorum, or World War I battles in Europe.

Location & setting.

If you’re feeling burnt out after writing your ninth cozy mystery set in a charming small town in South Carolina, consider changing the background to a cozy mystery set in a working class neighborhood in the mid-West like the one your Mom or Dad grew up in.

Or move your setting from South Carolina to your roommate’s suburban neighborhood near Dallas.

What about the farm in a rural area you visited one summer?

Consider the visit to a state capital you recall from your class trip and change your small town cupcake shop setting to the doings of politicians, lobbyists and support staff. Who also eat a lot of cupcakes.

You can indulge your daydreams of visiting Paris by sending your heroine to a small hotel on the left bank, where she shops on the Champs Elysée, and enjoys café au lait and chocolate croissants at the “perfect” small café.

Whether you’re a fan or participant, a transition from cozy mystery to sports mystery about a sport you enjoy and know a little (or a lot) about can make sense.

Running.

Volleyball.

Badmitton.

Croquet.

Tennis.

Softball.

And, of course, the usual suspects: bkaseball, basketball and football.

A small change can make a big difference when you write what you don’t know.

Our cozy mystery writer will still have the small cast of characters s/he knows how to write but putting the victim and the suspects in a different setting can refresh you—and your writing.

A simple change in location will change so many things: food, local customs, entertainment, school and work experiences.

Travel blogs are a great source of research.

So are the international streaming series on Netflix, Amazon and Sundance,

For more inspiration, here is an article by author Olivia Rana discussing what she did — and didn’t do—to research settings in India, Iceland and Northern Ireland.

Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.

Unless your character is an heir or heiress (can be the case in historical fiction), s/he will have to do something to make a living.

John Grisham turned his experiences as a lawyer into fame and fortune.

John LeCarré was an intel officer in Germany. Material for his bestselling spy novels came from those early years.

Ian Fleming was also an intel officer and he created James Bond.

Agatha Christie qualified as a pharmacist’s assistant and used her knowledge of drugs in her novels.

Kurt Vonnegut worked as a journalist for Sports Illustrated, a PR executive for General Electric, and, briefly, as a car dealer, before his writing career took off.

Franz Kafka was an insurance clerk working as an insignificant clerk for a large, powerful company, an experience said to have inspired The Trial.

Michael Connolly was a crime reporter in Florida and California, work experience that led to the creation of his recurring character, Los Angeles Police Department Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch.

Don Winslow made his living as a movie theater manager and later a private investigator in Times Square.

The point is that drawing on your own — or a friend’s, roommate’s, relative’s — work experience will offer a wide range of settings, conflicts, and frustrations to refresh your fiction.

For example—

Not getting a well-earned raise or promotion.

Conflict with a back-stabbing colleague.

Handling a nasty customer.

Dealing with an incompetent boss.

A secret office romance.

Or a “fish out of water” scenario? A buttoned-down accountant is hired by a theater company about to go bankrupt, a situation with plenty of messy, operatic meltdowns and beaucoup drama.

Or, to take an example from a friend of mine who had a summer job in quality control inspecting men’s underpants for flaws in a Fruit of the Loom factory. A talented pianist, she escaped the underpants and became a respected teacher. However, that summer job gave her practice in tolerating tedium and helped her improve her own practice sessions and those of her students.

And her experience gave me an idea about what boring jobs are like, what to learn from them, and how to escape them.

Love & Angst.

Gee, can you really believe I put these two experiences in the same headline? 😉

We’ve all had our own run-ins with love (and angst), but, even if you’ve already drawn on your own experiences, here is another rich area of possibilities for writing what you don’t know. We’ve all been privy to our friends and family’s tales of —

Romance: Teenage love, summer romances, vacation romances, office romances, and/or the boy/girl next door romance.

And their flip side:

Breakups.

Makeups.

Divorce.

Doomed love affairs.

Real-life happy endings.

Scary health issues.

Financial ups and downs.

POV

Usually, write romance in the third person? Try first person.

Want to attempt something more challenging? Alternating POVs is a way to tell your story that offers a wide scope of possibilities.

Usually, write from the POV of your MC?

What about writing about a lovers’ spat from the POV of the dog. The cat.

Or from the dog and the cat in alternating chapters. Surely a dog and a cat will view a lovers’ spat differently, right?

From the POV sugar bowl on the kitchen table.

Or from the POV of a gun that does — or doesn’t — get fired.

I began Zuri, my story about an animal orphanage in Africa, from the POV of a baby rhino who witnesses her mother’s slaughter but doesn’t understand what’s happened.

Bottom line—

When you take into account yourself, your colleagues, relatives, and friends, and combine your experiences and theirs with appropriate fictionalization, you have a wide range of resources to draw on. The fact is that “writing what you don’t know” offers many more possibilities than you might think at first.

Because, as happens so often that it’s almost predictable, you know more than you think you know.

Dear Scriveners, Do you usually write what you know? Have you tried to write what you don’t know? Did you find stepping outside your usual genre refreshing? Or challenging?

About the Park Avenue Series FREE Sampler—

“Bestsellers like Decades, Husbands And Lovers and Love And Money have established Ruth Harris as one of the frankest, most stylish, and most compelling voices in contemporary fiction.” —Chicago Sun-Times

Decades, Book #1—Three women, three decades, the story of marriage, betrayal, and lives transformed during the tumultuous middle years of the 20th Century. —“The songs we sang, the clothes we wore, the way we made love. Absolutely perfect.” —Publisher’s Weekly

Husbands And Lovers, Book #2—Million copy New York Times bestseller. Romantic Times award winner. A lonely wife. A handsome lover. A jealous husband. A gun in a Tiffany bag. “Steamy and fast-paced.” —Cosmopolitan

Love And Money, Book #3—Rich girl, poor girl. Sisters and strangers until the man they both love—and murder—bring them face to face. “Richly plotted. First-class entertainment.” —NYTimes Book Review

Modern Women (Park Avenue Series, Book #4), a million-copy New York Times bestseller. “Ruth Harris’ rapier wit spices up a coming-of-age-in-the-sexist-‘60s story. Funny, sad, vivid, Harris seeks to enliven and entertain, and she does it in spades.” —Cleveland Plain-Dealer  “Fiction at its best.” —New Woman Magazine

The Last Romantics, Book #5—She is the toast of Paris. He is bold, brave, celebrated. Together they change history. An epic love story set in the champagne-fizzed 1920s “Fantastic! Gloriously romantic! —Kirkus “A big, voluptuous, rewarding read.” —Magnum

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