A common piece of advice I've heard (and I'm sure you have, too!) is write what you know. In some respects, this is pretty useful for my writing process, but in other ways it isn't. The idea behind it is that you don't have to go far to find interesting things to write about. If you are a teacher, for example, write about that. If you are drummer, write about that. This makes sense! Some writers, though, want to go outside of their comfort zone and write something...less boring. To this, my creative writing teacher would say that if you survived grade school, you have more writing material than you could use in a lifetime. Valid point! There are a lot of interesting things in childhood and school experiences to write about: friendships, heartbreaks, bullying, embarrassing moments-- just to name a few. In this respect, write what you know has served me well. Write what fascinates you I watched an #EverywhereBookFest author panel called "Plot the Spot." There were four published authors on the panel and they each gave a tip for writers struggling with plot or coming up with ideas. One of the authors, Stuart Gibbs, said something about the write what you know thing. He said he could see where that advice came from but when he does school visits and he talks with kids about their project ideas, he says they all sort of end up writing about the same thing. They probably are writing what they know; it's what their teachers told them to do. Stuart Gibbs said, "...what I like to do instead is write about what fascinates me." He used his book about dinosaurs as an example. Dinosaurs are something he has loved since he was a kid. Fossils especially fascinated him so he did some research and interviewed somebody who works with dinosaur fossils, and that's where he got the best ideas for his book. I feel like my current work in progress (WIP) is a mixture of what I know and what fascinates me. #OwnVoices If you're unfamiliar with this hashtag, you should check it out! Basically, it's the call for more stories told by unrepresented cultures and languages. So... for example:
Am I worthy? My question, then, since day one of my WIP has been "Am I worthy?" or "Am I the right person to tell this story?" #Nanowrimo drills it in us that, yes, we are! Just write. No one can tell the story quite like you. But sometimes I'm not so sure... I read somewhere that if there's a story you want to tell but you don't feel worthy to tell it, then become worthy of it. There's definitely truth to this because I've seen successful writers becoming worthy of the stories they want to tell and they do it beautifully! Some examples:
Becoming worthy
My current WIP is about the Chinese zodiacs. It's something that fascinate me. I think visiting the Great Wall and other places in China has greatly influenced this fascination. I'm also an ESL teacher, so there's that. I've had really cool teaching and tutoring opportunities to tap into and learn about the Chinese culture through my students from China. But I don't think that's enough. So I've done a ton of research on Chinese zodiac personalities and mythologies, using varying resources to cross reference, infer, and compare. My best friend is in China (and is Chinese), and when I told her during one of our weekly chats that I was working on this project, she was really excited and supportive! She lets me ask random questions to her whenever I want, and I do. Same with another friend from China that lives here in Arizona. He's helped me a ton with the martial arts stuff I want to include. But I don't think that's enough. I wanted my story to be set near Chinatown, so I visited LA's Chinatown and called someone on the phone concerning a character's occupation. When I decided to write for MG, I met with a class of potential readers and asked them questions about their interests and knowledge of the Chinese zodiacs. That isn't enough, I don't think because this week I've been updating my characters' sheets, backstories, and voice, and I discovered that in my first draft, I accidentally slipped in Western dragon characteristics in my Chinese Dragon. Oops! Instead of panicking (okay, I did for a moment but when I was done), I took a step back and did some more research on dragons and pinpointed the things I want to change in my story which will (hopefully) give it a more Eastern feel to it. More work I'm beginning to believe that I am becoming worthy to tell this story, but there is still more work to be done. More reading. More videos. More interviews. More on location research (if COVID-19 will let me). But most important... I need beta readers, sensitivity readers to be exact. That's what they're called in the writing community because they are #ownvoice perspectives. A general guideline is to have them if you're going to include a character from or address a culture (in general) other than your own. (That's me!) My Chinese friends I told you about have already offered to read my book when I'm ready, but I think I'll need others. This post isn't about me not being worthy to be a published author. That's not what I meant by my question. Writing is hard, yes. And publishing is difficult, yes. But I can do it. No, I'm talking about recognizing what I need to do if I want to make my story the very best it can be. Which I am. Am I worthy to tell the story I want to tell? Almost. Give me a little more time. I'm becoming worthy of it.
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