What Makes a Blog or a Book Compelling?

It’s important to draw a distinction between writing what you know, writing what you are, or were, and writing about characters that interact with the character that’s ‘you’.

Speaking personally, I ‘know’ what it’s like to be a university professor, construction worker, security contractor, airplane mechanic, and rugby player.

That said, I can take the motivations, aspirations, and conflicts from those lives and write about them…and I do. My central character (or narrator, if I ever choose to write in the first person) always has a connexion with one or more of these ‘lives’. I’d be foolish to take any other approach; authenticity would go out the window.

The supporting characters, however, are a different story. While I could write about the deep and meaningful relationships between mercenaries engaged in their business in a truly nasty part of the world, it wouldn’t really reach my target demographic.

So, I place my character in a more ‘normal’ setting, and flesh out the interactions between the main character with what I ‘know’ of the way they relate to others. I can’t get inside the head of a wife who’s dealing with a husband who checks under his car for booby traps every morning, but I can write what it looks like to talk with her, what it sounds like. I can get her emotions through dialogue and described body language (and, of course, action).

I’ve found that this requires almost constant attention to what people around me are saying, what they’re doing. I have to study my spouse, friends, colleagues, acquaintences. I don’t need a notebook, but I seem to recall that others – Hemingway, for example – took copious notes of his observations. It’s not a bad idea.

Am I using people for literary fodder? Absolutely.

But there’s a side benfit…understanding the people around me to the point that I can write about them in a convincing manner also means that I’m paying attention to what they say.

I hope it makes me a better husband, and friend.

Great way of putting this sage advice. You’re right–as a new writer it’s tough to not get confounded by “write what you know” paired with the main job of the fiction writer–to make stuff up. But even when we make stuff up, there’s a core of the story that comes from inside us. And there’s another layer on that–as we revise and refine, there’s a point at which we know the work is singing to us.

-TOSK

Wow, you’ve expanded my understanding of, “write what you know.” Thank you. It can be the difference between writing from a “head level” and a “heart level.” I always learn when I stop by here. Thanks, Rachelle.

Writing what you know in your heart isn’t easy. However, in that process you’re likely going to discover what you didn’t know you knew. That is a very rewarding part of writing.

Although I’ve heard that expression for decades, I never directly associated it with writing from the heart, but that makes sense. I think I enjoy my writing the most
and it seems richer and deeper when I do
write from my heart. It’s more believable.
Thank you, Rachelle, for making that clear.

Rachelle, as always a great post! I think this is great advice. And we all know more than we think we know. But I’ve also found that it’s good to write from what you are desperate to know–to write not just from the mountain top where you are saying, “Wow,, I get all this now,” but also from the place where you aren’t sure yet that you do. I love to write from that edge of what I am learning sometimes because it helps me to write so that the reader can experience those ahas with me, through me, instead of me proclaiming known facts. I guess there’s a difference between writing about an area you don’t really understand or haven’t experienced and writing about an area where you still have questions. In non-fiction, I think there are two kinds of books. The one where the author has all the answers and is telling you how to implement them, and the one where the author is sharing what she knows and has learned but is coming alongside the reader as a fellow pilgrim.
Your blogs are always so thought provoking, Rachelle. Thank you!!

Yes, Rachelle! It implies that we, as authors, are limited by the depth of our experiences, or at least the depth of our imaginations. For Christian authors that also implies that the depth of a character’s relationship with Christ is limited by the author’s.

Thanks for a post that resonated, Rachelle. I’ve always believed WHO we are — and WHERE we are in our lives — translates to the page. I’ve seen it in my non-fiction writing and in my novels in progress.

When I want to write from my truth and heart, I call it “digging deep.” It takes courage to give words to who I am, but if I don’t, readers know. Believe me. They know.

“Write what you know” used to paralyze me, simply because the question that logically follows is “So, just what the heck do I know?” It took me a long time, and a lot of writing – while ignoring outright what I “knew” – to finally amend the adage to “Write what you are PASSIONATE about!” I can learn about anything I am passionate about, which has led me down some fascinating roads. I’ve discovered so much about addiction recovery, spinal cord injuries, Native American culture… things that I never thought I had any business researching because how could I possibly write intelligently about those things? I knew nothing about them! But the stories I’ve felt compelled to tell gave me the courage and the passion to delve into these issues. And it’s made me a better writer, because I’ve learned to make that distinction.

Thanks for the great post Rachelle. It really resonates with me. I just finished the 4th edit of a novel I started twenty-three years ago. (No, I’m not a ridiculously slow writer.) I typed about thirty pages, life intervened and the notebook went into a drawer. Just last year I found it, gave the tale a read and decided to give it another try.

What an amazing difference those years made. I know I could have written the story then, but it would be nothing like the vibrante tale living in my computer now. Partially, because we only had a typewriter then, but mainly because the 27 year old me, didn’t KNOW what the 50 year old me does.

Keep up the great work, you are making a huge impact.

If I’m writing something I’m not familiar with, I make sure it is at least relates to my life. Is there a chance I could go through this situation? If yes, then there’s a good chance my mind can accurately portray it (with a lot of research, of course).

Hi Rachelle,

I love this whole idea – what better way to feed my DQ (Drama Queen, not Dairy Queen… although Dairy Queen is a pretty darn good way to feed my Drama Queen) than to write about little old me and that deep place inside.

The one negative fall-out to that, however, is that sometimes my characters all sound like different versions of… you guessed it, ME.

I’m learning to combat that with quirks. I pick a good quirk or flaw or even strength and make sure my character stays true to that quirk. That way, even if everyone has elements of MOI, they still have their own defining traits, too. Does that make sense to anyone but me?

Julie Lessman, self-proclaimed Queen of Quirks, wrote this great article on this subject last month.

http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2012/07/queen-of-quirk-and-giveaway.html

Blessings,
Becky