As I recently mentioned, I’ve started a new novel. Since a big part of the novel is fantasy, I’m
spending time with that which is unfamiliar to me.
Writers should always spend time with the unfamiliar, and
that’s not limited to topics. When I
wrote Akeldama, I used the Catholic Church as the main organization, not
because I was Catholic(which I’m not), but because it’s the largest religious
organization I could think of to wrap around the story. Therefore, I had to learn about the Church or
the story would look trite and cliched.
A writer that doesn’t delve into the unfamiliar will
fail. A buddy of mine wrote a book where
the military was a prominent feature.
Yes, it was a science-fiction setting, but it could easily have been
classified as military fiction since while the setting was the future, the main
characters were all Soldiers and the action was based on a military
campaign. The problem was that it became
readily apparent that the only experience this guy had with the military was
through movies and TV shows. Everything
was a stereotype and bore no semblance to reality. Sure, it might fly with a certain subset of
ignorant fan, but anyone who had any inkling of military life would chuckle
their way through the book the way we chuckle our way through Attack of theKiller Tomatoes. The writing was
obviously lazy and showed no effort to make it more real.
Unfamiliarity is uncomfortable but necessary. We cannot grow without it. Sure, we can stay in our bubbles and write
only what we know, but won’t that eventually grow stale?
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