"Writing What You Own"

This thread is primarily applicable to those writing stories set in some place that's based on Earth of the Here-and-Now or perhaps the fairly recent past or 20 Minutes in the Future.

We've all heard "Write What You Know", but how many here take that to the extent of incorporating into their stories specific items they own or items with which they have had personal experience?

Many of my characters in "fairly contemporary" settings use/own things that I personally own/have owned/have used as these are the things with which I'm most familiar and can therefore write about with authority - I know exactly how they work, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they perform under various circumstances and possibly tips and tricks or work-arounds, if applicable - and, if need be, I can pick up the item in question while I'm writing and confirm if it will or won't behave in a certain way.

Consequently, very few of my characters drive, say, Ferraris as I'm not in that financial league and don't have the first clue what it's like to drive a Ferrari.

If a character in my story were to drive a Ferrari, I'd "gloss over" anything to do with it - they got in and drove to the shop, then drove back home - while I could give more detail if the character were driving a clapped-out 1997 Nissan Pulsar. Or a Toyota Corolla or one of a number of motorcycles I've ridden over the years.

I also can avoid pitfalls of the "WTF? You can't do that with one of those" variety.

Sure, there's research to get specifications, instruction manuals and reviews that give the basic information or someone else's opinions, but for me that's not quite enough.

I could watch Top Gear but all I would find out is what Jeremy Clarkson or James May thinks about it, not what one of my characters thinks or feels about it.

Whereas if I use things with which I have personal experience, I can work out how any given character I've created might think and feel.

Consequently, many of my characters "quite coincidentally" have things that I could reach out and touch right now and I can write about how they use those things without having to spend hours searching the internet to see if Brand X, Model Y has feature Z - because I already know.

I might not mention actual brand names and/or models in story, but the description of how certain items work is based entirely on something I've owned or used.

Not every item my characters use is based on something I own or have used, but a lot of them are.

Do any of you others who write fairly contemporary works do the same thing?

Oh I do this all the time with my current series and I'm not one bit sorry about it. Examples:

• My lead character's car is the same make and model I drove when I first wrote the character...and it came complete with some of the same flaws I had to deal with when driving the thing.
• Her apartment is in the same complex I once lived in - so I knew how to describe it as well as how long it would take her to get to work.
• Her office is located in roughly the same industrial park as the business I worked for when I lived in the Seattle area.
• All the firearms featured in my series are ones my friends own; that way I can handle them, test-fire them...otherwise make sure my descriptions of them are accurate.
• The plot of my first novel borrows directly from my experiences dealing with robo-foreclosures and mortgage fraud. My second book is based on an old piece of family drama dating back to 1961...which still remains unsolved, BTW.
• My lead character's physical appearance is based on a woman I've known for over twenty years...as in, somebody I can poke on chat and ask things like "How much do you weigh?" or "what's your bra size?" without worry of causing drama or not getting a straight answer.
• The supporting cast are all likewise based on people I've known throughout my life; its how I get to the "quirky and crazy, yet totally believable" characters readers have consistently praised. You can't construct that kind of quirk artificially..you can only observe and copy it.

There are numerous smaller examples as well but those would involve either spoilers or a lot of explanation. Anyway, yes; I am a huge fan of this tactic and think more writers ought to employ it.

I fully agree about copying quirks from real life and familiar locations are always beneficial for verisimilitude. A section of native bush that features in one of my current works is an amalgamation of several places I've tramped and camped, so everything the characters encounter in the way of terrain is something I've experienced. When I'm writing it, I can see, hear, smell and feel the place.

One of the characters carries exactly the same camping gear I do - with a few omissions - so I know exactly how it fits into a pack, how heavy/bulky it is, what it does, how well it works etc. He even makes the same mods to store-bought items that I've made over the years.

I tend to write characters' gear lists in detail so I know exactly what they have to hand at any given time - I try to avoid just "assuming they'd have what they need" so I can avoid Hammerspace.

When it gets really bad is when I go out and buy something just because I want one of my characters to have one and I want to try it out/familiarise myself with it.

I only do that with things I think would be cool to have or I needed to get anyway, but it's my idea of "research".

Example: I needed a new phone - well, newer than the old 2009-model Android 1.5 piece of shit that I've currently got - so I specifically purchased a phone that would have been available in 2013, when one of my characters would have purchased it.

It's an improvement over my current phone, cheaper than the latest model and it will enable me to write with authority about a piece of equipment from that year, so I'm winning all 'round.

Thanks for the lack of spoilers, I intend to read your books at some stage.

edited 27th Dec '14 3:59:04 AM by Wolf1066