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*has potentially unpopular opinion*
For some reason, I've been writing a lot of 'what I know' recently - places I've been and experiences I've had. None of them have been exact situations that I've lived, but compared with the usual stabbing in the dark I'd say we're in 'what I know' territory. The thing is, I don't think it's made me write any better than I might have done otherwise. Certain aspects have certainly been easier, but to me it's doesn't feel like the words have come out with any new sense of sparkling truth to them.
It's led me to realising what I thought was possibly true for a while: I really don't get on with 'write what you know' as a maxim. It might work for novels, because people probably have more to say about what they know, but in fandom, where you're having to work with someone else's world, I don't think it's particularly useful. The Buffyverse is almost completely alien to me - I've never been to California; the relationships aren't like ones I've been in, either familial, romantic or between friends; I've certainly never interacted with a vampire. Short of drastically changing the verse in some way, or limiting myself to writing outside the canon characters, I'm almost always writing what I don't know. But I don't think it's put me at a particular disadvantage. (That's not to say I don't bring things in that I do know about, because I do, but I equally toss in utterly random crap because it serves the story. I don't think one should be preferable to the other.)
And, more than that, I can't help but feel that 'write what you know' gives people the excuse not to branch out from their own experience - or, at lease, people with normative life experiences anyway. Because, with TV (etc.) the way it is, a lot of people are going to be forced to write what they don't know if they want to write fic. 'Write what you know' might as well be 'write what we know (but only if you can pretend that you know it)'. It rubs me up the wrong way.
For example, I always thought that I shouldn't write any graphic sex scenes until I had, you know, had sex. But then I came to realise I wasn't intending to do that in either the near or distant future, whereas I was writing fic where sex could be an extremely crucial moment in the story (mostly unpublished stuff but the point still stands). So I started writing what I didn't know and, really, that made my writing better.
Basically, why encourage people to limit themselves unnecessarily? I'm not saying that it might not be a useful suggestion in moderation, but I wish it wouldn't be seen as some sort of universal truth of what makes good writing.
For some reason, I've been writing a lot of 'what I know' recently - places I've been and experiences I've had. None of them have been exact situations that I've lived, but compared with the usual stabbing in the dark I'd say we're in 'what I know' territory. The thing is, I don't think it's made me write any better than I might have done otherwise. Certain aspects have certainly been easier, but to me it's doesn't feel like the words have come out with any new sense of sparkling truth to them.
It's led me to realising what I thought was possibly true for a while: I really don't get on with 'write what you know' as a maxim. It might work for novels, because people probably have more to say about what they know, but in fandom, where you're having to work with someone else's world, I don't think it's particularly useful. The Buffyverse is almost completely alien to me - I've never been to California; the relationships aren't like ones I've been in, either familial, romantic or between friends; I've certainly never interacted with a vampire. Short of drastically changing the verse in some way, or limiting myself to writing outside the canon characters, I'm almost always writing what I don't know. But I don't think it's put me at a particular disadvantage. (That's not to say I don't bring things in that I do know about, because I do, but I equally toss in utterly random crap because it serves the story. I don't think one should be preferable to the other.)
And, more than that, I can't help but feel that 'write what you know' gives people the excuse not to branch out from their own experience - or, at lease, people with normative life experiences anyway. Because, with TV (etc.) the way it is, a lot of people are going to be forced to write what they don't know if they want to write fic. 'Write what you know' might as well be 'write what we know (but only if you can pretend that you know it)'. It rubs me up the wrong way.
For example, I always thought that I shouldn't write any graphic sex scenes until I had, you know, had sex. But then I came to realise I wasn't intending to do that in either the near or distant future, whereas I was writing fic where sex could be an extremely crucial moment in the story (mostly unpublished stuff but the point still stands). So I started writing what I didn't know and, really, that made my writing better.
Basically, why encourage people to limit themselves unnecessarily? I'm not saying that it might not be a useful suggestion in moderation, but I wish it wouldn't be seen as some sort of universal truth of what makes good writing.