On the flip side of my last blog that explored utilizing personal experiences in fictional writing, my question of the day is whether not having direct exposure should stop someone from writing about a person, place, or set of circumstances in a fictional sense?
My initial reaction to that would be of course not. Writing only about matters you have direct and personal experience of, for most of us normal mundane individuals, would be extremely restrictive and downright boring. Where’s the fun in that!
Does it make for easy writing, hell no. But if easy is your thing then writing sure as heck is not. If you’re writing fiction, it’s for a very good reason. You have an amazing imagination, so why not use it.
The most challenging characters are always the ones you share little to no commonality with. Getting into their headspace can be a slow and difficult process, therefore what does need to be considered is the preliminary work that such an undertaking requires.
When you don’t have a catalogue of experiences to fall back on you have to create one, certainly to begin with at least. Although time consuming, it is undeniably a fantastic learning opportunity, (I hold my hands up, my inner teacher may have surfaced here).
It can be like forging a new relationship. You want to know and understand your character and the beauty of it is you get to play the role of their creator, the good, the bad, the ugly and the not so ugly parts. Looking at it with that mindset makes it less of a chore and more of an exciting endeavor.
What is imperative is that you avoid the risk of stereotyping actual living people who may assimilate with your fictional character. There is nothing wrong with character diversity in stories, I’d argue it’s a must. But sensitivity is of course of paramount importance.
Complete and comprehensive character building gives writers a unique opportunity to increase empathy and can reduce prejudice for both the writer and the reader, all necessary to avoid character inconsistencies, which can unravel a story at super speed. Creating a character with unrealistic adaptive functioning skills, glazing over what their thought processes would be within a specific set of circumstances, or inadvertently stereotyping will not be well received. How you portray a character can have a real-world impact, painting an inaccurate and potentially harmful impression to those who don’t know any better, and offending those who do.
And it’s not just the characters. When going through the editing process for From the Other Side, in one scene I had referred to the Adirondack mountains, describing them as “jagged peaks,” when in fact they are the complete opposite. It was two words in a 90k word book yet to anyone who was familiar with that range those two words would have been disastrous. Just the smallest error had the potential to cause a loss of credibility and reader trust. That was completely my fault and demonstrated a failing in what I thought was adequate research. It also highlighted something I had managed to miss.
When you are writing about geographical locations that are real, somebody somewhere is going to be an expert. Somebody is going to have grown up there, or spent summers there, and will immediately identify any incorrect statements. At no point was it necessary for me to base any part of the story within a real geographical location. In hindsight I would have been better creating a fictional setting and basing it on a real location that fit the story, thus eliminating the potential for a glaringly obvious mistake (major duh moment).
When you actually think about it, with such a multitude of facets of information that are literally at our fingertips, it’s virtually impossible not to have had exposure to a plethora of different things. I know nothing about outer space. But through books, movies, television shows, local rocket launches (perk of being a resident of Florida) I at the very least have a foundation to build upon should I ever choose outer space as a setting for a story.
It cannot be denied that having real life experiences are invaluable. Would it be better if I had firsthand experience similar to what my characters encounter, or if I were able to visit the places I chose as a setting, without a doubt yes. It would add an element to my storytelling that would be more realistic, however I am far from being in a situation where such a feat is feasible and there is only so much wisdom that Google can impart. Therefore, moving forward, I will construct my locations in the way I do best, by taking inspiration from what does exist and creating a place within my slightly deranged mind that does not.