Writing Fiction From Personal Experience

In my completely anecdotal, not at all peer-reviewed, so far from a double-blind study, viewpoint, I have found that writers tend to fall into two groups. Those that love, and I mean LOVE research, and those who really don’t.

(Writing Description in Fiction.)

Based on that opening paragraph, it will come as no surprise that I do not love research. I don’t tumble down a joyous rabbit hole of reading property deeds from 1874 Philadelphia while sipping coffee on a sunny, Sunday morning. In fact, there is nothing I would rather do less than try to sort through research materials. But, what I do love is writing from experience. 

In fact, gaining experience for the sake of writing has become the way I dare to try something new and hard. Upon graduating from college, I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I also, without really being able to articulate it, knew I didn’t really have anything to write about. In an attempt to become a better writer, I started doing stuff that I wasn’t inherently good at. I figured the new experiences would at least get me some sort of writing material, but after a while I realized that trying new things was doing more than simply aiding my writing.

If I was scared of something, or scared of the ego bruise from possibly failing at something, I simply reframed it as, At minimum, I’ll get through this and be a better writer. My desire to be a ‘real’ writer had, inadvertently, made me braver. And it continues to make me braver to this day.

It is with this mentality I’ve learned how to shoot guns, ride horses, box, roll jiu jitsu, go on 25-mile plus trail runs, bird hunt, elk hunt, drive snowmobiles, telemark ski, and so much more.

Anyone can write from experience. But not everyone is willing to get out there and experience what the world has to offer. But that is why we read. We want to experience something from a viewpoint that is not our own. We want to taste the snow of the Himalayas from our couch in Santa Barbara. We want to go behind locked doors while snuggling under our soft blanket. We want to meet people from all walks of life without actually having to talk to anyone.

And while you can research how the CIA works, that’s only part of what makes a story. If you learn aspects of your CIA protagonist’s life, be it you actually run the fitness test required to get into the CIA academy, or you travel to Peru, where your CIA agent is on a case, you gain so much from those experiences. And, by experiencing even a sliver of your character’s existence, when you do sit at the computer to do the dreaded research, you’ll have a place to start. You’ll have a lens to look through. 

And while we all wish we were loaded enough to simply jet to another country to do some experiential research on a character we hope to one day write into a bestselling novel, don’t think that all experiences require money or to be able bodied. Even learning to make lattes, or spending a day shadowing at a retail job will give you a new way of looking through your character’s eyes. Go stand in the summer sun on blacktop for an hour. It will change how you look at the world. 

So, if you, like me, don’t love research, you can still be a realistic writer. You just have to get out of your chair and venture into the real world. Dare yourself to do something you don’t think you can do but that your character can do. You’ll learn so much, not just about the story you’re writing, but about yourself. And who knows, maybe some of those cool traits you’re writing into your badass protagonist will, inadvertently, become some of your own cool traits.

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