They say write what you know. This doesn’t mean you can’t write about
unicorns because you don’t know one. By
the way, I do know a few unicorns and if you want to write about one I’ll
introduce you. But I digress. What this
means to me is write about people you understand; write about emotions you
understand and can relate to. This rule is not meant to be taken literally. It
does not mean to write about J who borrowed your favorite jacket and then sold
it for drug money. Sure, you can write
about this literally, but what’s more interesting is to write about the person’s
emotional state when they borrowed your jacket knowing they never planned to
give it back. Write about your emotional
state when you discover you’ve been duped by a friend. This is what I believe is meant by writing
what you know.
With my latest WIP, however, I’ve seemingly moved
backwards and gone somewhat to the literal stage. While The Memory Giver is a ghost story, at
its heart it’s about the unlikely romance of a pre-teen boy and girl. Anyone who’s seen my WIP on Wattpad (If you’re
interested GO HERE) knows chapter one begins when a girl rescues a boy from
some bullies. This really happened to me--literally. When I was in the eighth grade, I really did
get rescued (in a sense) by a girl.
Susan was new to the neighborhood, but had quickly
earned a reputation for herself as one of the girls not to be messed with. Not by girls.
Not by boys. Not by
teachers. Susan was the first girl I
knew who smoked. I’d often see her
sitting on her stoop, a cigarette dangling from her lip like a card shark, as
she talked a-mile-a-minute. The way
that cigarette could hang there without dropping off was a fascination to
me. While other young girls who smoked
put out their cigarettes before they got into the neighborhood, Susan smoked
right in front of her own apartment building.
She had scars on her arms, and one on her upper lip
from fighting, I guess. I’d never seen
Susan in a fight, but I’d heard about her beating up boys. Her prowess only added to her mystique.
Beneath the scowl and the scars and the cloud of smoke, Susan was cute. She was no raving beauty, but who was back
then.
I was in the accelerated learning program, and
somehow Susan was placed in my class.
She didn’t look like she belonged there, but no one was going to
question her presence. One day in home
room three of the popular boys were teasing me.
I can’t remember why. I’d known
these guys since 6th grade.
“Stop messin’ with my boyfriend,” Susan said. She seemed dead serious.
The entire class stopped what they were doing and looked
at her. Susan was a girl of a few
words. She’d had very little social
interaction with the class until then.
“Who? Eric?”
one of the boys said, as if she’d just told a joke.
Susan stood up.“You got a problem with that?”
Needless to say, no one had a problem with me being
Susan’s boyfriend. The teasing stopped.
I couldn’t figure out why she did it, why she came to my rescue. Even though I was glad the teasing stopped, it
was embarrassing having a girl stand up for me.
Then, to my surprise, after school, Susan appeared by my side.
“Hi, boyfriend,” she said with a big smile.
“Umm. Hi.”
“Were you leaving without me? Aren’t you going to walk me home?”
“Umm. Sure.”
Things went back to normal after a few days,
but I never forgot Susan, and I used this incident as a springboard for my latest.
This writing from my past is actually a first
for me. I can’t say I’m growing as a writer, although
I can say my material is getting closer to home. In part II of this post I’ll
talk about my older brother, the other person my latest is about.
Write what you know means to write about the people
and emotions you understand enough to explore. You can also write about amusing
or interesting situations you’ve been in.
Just don’t take the adage too literally and start writing about you and your
three friends in high school who all like the same boy. That may be interesting to you, but it will
bore us readers to tears. Use the adage
judiciously.
Are you writing what you know? I’d like to know.
Keep Reading-Keep Writing
