If you have been following my posts, you would be familiar with my insistence that you only write what is familiar to you when you pick a genre, a theme or a backdrop to your story. I am not interested in all the silly word-for-word or 'lurus bendul' argument that people will come up with, such as 'but I want to write about an immortal. Does this mean I can't because I am mortal."
[Click this link to watch the video that mirrors this post.]
Even the idea that a female writer should only write about female protagonists and a male writer should write about a male protagonists makes little sense. This is because in this day and age, we now know that physical gender has nothing to do with courage, intelligence or emotion. It matters more that you get their attitude, temperament and motivation properly aligned. The only danger of writing about a character whose gender, race or religion is different from ours is our tendency to fall back on biases and assumptions. Sometime we even start writing with those characters because of these biases and assumptions.
1. Details Based on Facts
What I mean by writing what is familiar is, if you want to write a historical novel, then you must be someone who loves reading history and watching history documentaries. You get a tingle of excitement and your heart race when you come across news about a new archaeological dig. Readers cannot time-travel, so what you know is what they know. For example you want to write a historical romance based on Viking culture, so you give your Viking warriors helmets with horns because that is what you see in comics and movies. With that, you've lose the respect of serious Viking enthusiasts. Why? Because the horns on the iconic 'Viking' helmet was originally designed for a Wagner opera, The Valkyrie. If you were interested in real Viking history, you will know this instinctively. Unless of course, you want to write an opera style story mimicking pop-symbols. Even so, you should still have above average knowledge of this iconic symbol.
Then there is the geography or detail of a place. If you use an actual place for your backdrop, it is best if it is somewhere you have been to before. It is one thing to describe a modern location in a historical setting, but to use an existing setting, you must at least be familiar with the optics. If it is a place you have physically visited, then you will have information for all the five senses. In the Marvel movie Venom (2018), my hometown Sibu was mentioned as the place where the spacecraft crashed. At first, I was like 'Yipee', then I went to 'What?'. The ambulance was the wrong colour. It was a bright golden yellow. Ours here is a light peach colour. Also the night market in the movie sold raw meat and fish. No... I have been to the night market here a few times. Nobody sells wet and bloody raw meat and fish in the Sibu night market. I think the town council license only allow those stuff for sell in the wet market for hygienic reasons. This kind of detail may seem trivial, but people who are familiar with the location will interpret it as a sign of carelessness.
2. Details Based on Practice
Also there are details based on knowledge concerning magic or spiritualism. Again it is best if you write what you know. Or at the very least, you should know the common rule for the universe or world you are writing about. For example, Western magic use spells, wands and potions. Chinese magic use talismans, arrays and the power of chi. In the Melanau culture, healing rites usually involve music. Even the way curses are used or applied are different across cultures.
Is it easier to write a modern science based thriller or a fantasy adventure for magical knowledge? Again the answer to this question is up to your own tendency. If you have an analytical mind, then it would be easier for you to write a science based story. If, however, you have no problem thinking up gravity defying moves or unproven theories of magic, then writing fantasy may be easier for you.
Believe me, whether you realise it or not, you have a 'rule' running the way you think. For example, I had the longest time coming up with a female Iban warrior because I kept worrying about all her restrictions because of her menstrual cycle. I had to actually forced myself not to think about it when I was writing 'Iban Woman', else a lot of the plots will not work. There will also be some 'rules' that your mind can break easily. For example, I have no problem shifting my thoughts from reality to dreamscape. This is the easiest thing for me to write, even though I have never learned how to do it. My best advice at this point is that you explore the limits of your writing in as many ways as you can. It will help you learn where your strengths and weaknesses are.
3. Details Based on Belief
You can get away from not knowing how heaven looks like because no one alive has been to heaven and back. Or hell, for that matter. However, it is best that you stick with the details that are meant for the culture you are writing about. The Christian heaven is different from the Chinese heaven which is as equally different from the Iban heaven. I believe that a lot of this has to do with the philosophy of a culture. For example, the Iban culture is agrarian, so if I use a bureaucratic city-style heaven like the Chinese heaven, it will make no sense to readers who are familiar with the Iban culture. The ideal life for a historical Iban is one where he or she is being surrounded by family and fertile fields. Naturally their heaven is a place with a very expansive longhouse and plenty of farmland.
Must we stick rigidly to the local customs, rules and beliefs when we are writing a story based on indigenous history, myth or folklore? You do not have to study every rule or belief. You only need to work with what you need for your plot. If you are very familiar with the culture, there is little danger that you will misrepresent anything because you will instinctively know if something feels right or wrong.
What if we want to apply some other kind of magic or fighting style or war strategy because the other method is more interesting and exciting? You can introduce a different culture through travel or a foreign character. For example in Iban Woman, I wanted Ratai the heroin to have a riverboat as her home. Iban's have canoe-style boats that they moor each night when they make camp. I wanted a houseboat for her, so I introduced a foreign character into the story. Mali, this character, is a slave who was kidnapped when he was a child and sold and resold across the trade route. He is a handy craftsman who knows how to build a larger more comfortable boat.
I hope today's video has given you some ideas or answer a question.
Start writing, keep writing. Good luck.
Comments
Post a Comment