Learning as You Write – Guest Post…

Posted on by Chris The Story Reading Ape

Untitled

Writers are advised by editors, agents, academic and self-appointed experts to write about what they know. Some people have pointed out that would be boring. As writers we live in a world of imagination. Some tend to exaggerate, or have a quirky point of view, but many of us simply wonder what’s beyond the known world. We daydream, pay close attention to and analyze our sensory experience, and experiment with ideas. In other words, we go beyond the bounds of ordinary existence. In a way our characters are avatars for ourselves as we explore a made-up world, one created from what we know and what we are curious to know.

When I wrote Miami Morning, I broke the rule on writing what you know. Instead, I was fascinated by what I could learn about topics that were new to me. As I wrote, for instance, I was challenged, just as my main character was by how little I knew about the lives of moderately and severely disabled people.

I’d been inspired to write about this subject through my participation in a group that included disability advocates and therapists, some of them also persons with disabilities. But I soon realized that I needed to do more research. With suggestions from a member of the group, and my own thoughts, I searched online for information. I was amazed at the depth and breadth of articles, photographs, blogs and videos on this subject, worldwide, and going back in time.

I was in new territory, and yet, as a human being, I realized that I was on familiar ground. I have suffered from disabling illness for periods of time, and I’ve known someone disabled in an accident. The disabled are part of the narrative of ordinary life. We are all in fact part of the same narrative, that of physically and mentally embodied human beings. I had crossed the border into what I didn’t know only to find myself.

In my book, so to speak, it’s okay to write what you don’t know, as long as you make every effort to come to know it. Whether you write paranormal fiction, historical fiction, mysteries or horror stories, you may only be going into the unknown to find yourself there.

Mary Clark

Visual 3D Mary Clark

Barnes & Noble

Amazon:

UK – USA – CA – AUS

19 thoughts on “Learning as You Write – Guest Post…”

  2. Reblogged this on TINA FRISCO and commented:
    Mary Clark is a guest on The Story Reading Ape, discussing Learning as You Write: “it’s okay to write what you don’t know, as long as you make every effort to come to know it.” When I began writing my latest novel, I thought no research would be involved. Was I taken by surprise? You bet. And I thoroughly researched everything for the sake of authenticity. Hop over to Chris’ blog to read about Mary’s personal experience . . .

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. I agree that the world would be a boring place where writers to stick to only writing what they know. The intelligent person is constantly seeking new knowledge and their known is in a state of flux. Being registered blind I was interested to read that your books pertains to the lives of people with disabilities. The fact that you know, have worked with and research this subject means that your known experience has expanded so I dont see any problem with you writing such a book, indeed it is great that you took the time to understand the subject/people about which you wrote. Kevin

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

DON'T BE SHY - LEAVE A REPLY

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.