Horcruxes and "writing what you know".

I've talked before about how much I love stories, so it should come as no surprise that (since NaNoWriMo is coming up), I'm thinking about stories again.

"They" always say to write what you know. Now, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's just a little bit rubbish.

If we only wrote what we know, we'd be cut of from whole genres of stories. There simply wouldn't be any fantasy or sci-fi. It wouldn't exist. Harry Potter never would have been written* if Jo just wrote "what she knew".

Jumping off from that, what about all the people who write characters who's gender differs from the author? They aren't writing "what they know". How about authors who differ from their characters in political belief, personal history, location, personality, sexual orientation, age, culture, family history, or interests? Just a guess, but I'd have to say that most authors differ from their characters in one of those ways or more.

And you know what? I'm profoundly glad that people don't write "what they know". What a boring selection of literature we would have, if they did.

Drawing on your own personal experiences while writing, however, is wonderful tool. Jo may not have been a a wizard herself, but there are traits she shares with Harry, and that brings a realisim to him. I think you can put some of yourself into whoever you're writing without making the character a Mary Sue.

In a way, writing is like making a Horcrux. Every time you do it, you tuck a little piece of your soul into what you've created. But instead of it making you weaker and less human, it does the opposite.

If I had to write just what I knew, I could only write one story. The story of my life. I want to tell other stories, stories that I may not have lived, but are still important.

So go on. Get a pen, a pencil, a blank white sheet of paper, a keyboard, a word document and join me.

Let's write what we don't know, so we can understand ourselves and the world better.

After all, NaNoWriMo starts in just 74 days!

~Whimsy

* This does discount the theory that Jo is actually a member of the wizarding world, something that I would not be totally surprised about, to be honest.