Writing out of your comfort zone

Thefireflies said:

I began to water it down, then around 20,000 words I abandoned the story altogether because I felt it wasn’t a part of the story which could or should be sugar-coated for the sake of entertainment. I began to feel I wasn’t the one to tell it.

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I think if you approached this story with that level trepidation than it might mean you're not the one to tell it right now.

The fact that you're even concerned about this shows that you care, and aren't going obliviously churn out another white savior romance and believe that you're enlightened.

Someone said "Write what you know." And that's a good start. So how much do you know about the culture you want to write about? How could you learn?

James Clavell wrote one of the most white savior romance stories ever. It was my guilty pleasure. Thing is though, he had his research so well down that it impressed scholars. Not saying you need to rise to that level. He shows though that it can be done.

Thefireflies said:

Hi all,
:
What are your opinions/thoughts on authors writing stories about topics they know about but are generally unfamiliar with the experience in the real world?

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For a while, I worked with an Irish editor. While communicating with him, I came up with a story idea where an American of Irish descent goes to Ireland and falls in love with an Irish woman. I'm an American whose never been Ireland, so I was going to rely on my Irish editor for the Irish color. About the time I started writing the story, I stopped hearing from him. I got one more email from he much later saying he had health problems, then radio silence.

At some point, I read the E&Y story Exploring the Ring of Kerry. I loved the female main character's Irish accent and decided my Irish character would have a Cork accent. I researched extensively the Cork accent.

I finished the story, but was never comfortable publishing. I tried several times to get someone Irish to read it, but that always fell through. It finally came down to I either published the story and accept that I'd get things wrong, or park it permanently. I decided to publish it.

"My European Summer Vacation" has done very well. A few people have pointed out things I got wrong in it (I botched what she regularly ate for breakfast very badly), but no one Irish has ever been anything but positive about the story. I think that is because they are very excited to see themselves in a highly-rated LitE story.

My guess is that Australian Aboriginal people will be thrilled to see a main character like them in a LitE story, and will happily overlook any mistakes you make depicting them as long as you do a decent job of it.

NotWise said:

...Writing an interracial story in Australia might not be much different than writing one placed in Chicago, where race relationships seem very strained, or in the US south where social segregation is widely accepted. It's a fact of life. Why can't you write about it?

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It’s not that I can’t write about it, but I’m aware of many sensitive issues here, where there is ongoing pain and hurt, and so if I were to write the story I began, I’d like to make the indigenous people in the story credible without using stereotypes.

KeithD said:

…Although I've brushed on water sports (e.g. golden showers) in a couple of stories, that's just too far out of my comfort zone to want even to write about (but there's a market for it).

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I'm sure someone would be interested in the adventures of Trough Man! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05...an-an-icon-of-sydneys-1980s-gay-scene/8496200

Hypoxia said:

…I'm not sure how much hate must be inserted into an erotic story. Can you report that hate happened without overly detailing it, or would that be watering-down too much?

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There wasn’t going to be too much hate, but like you say, intolerance abounds everywhere, where hate or uninformed prejudice are used as political footballs and dog-whistles. Hence, if I didn’t include such things in a story like what I’ve described, I felt it would be sugar-coating.

RubenR said:

I guess a large part of the challenge is to provide a true picture of the Indigenous Australians, and I have to agree that such a thing needs to treated with care. Otherwise you (I/he/she/we/they) too may fit the 'racist' label, without the intention of doing wrong.

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Yep, and also all the different nuances because, as Bramblethorn pointed out, Aboriginal or Indigenous is a very broad term, covering many cultures and experiences. I wasn’t going to get into that too deeply though, but was something I knew I needed to be aware of.

Maeven_quinn said:

…The fact that you're even concerned about this shows that you care, and aren't going obliviously churn out another white savior romance and believe that you're enlightened.

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Nah, my main female character is strong willed, smart, independent and doesn’t need saving. But it doesn’t mean she won’t have struggles. I wanted to make sure her struggles were realistic for a young indigenous lady navigating life. Not sure if I’m ‘enlightened’, but am sympathetic, for sure.

8letters, I just had a quick look at your blog and noted your recent article on ‘Letting go of stories that are too hard to write’ has some similarities here. I suppose the other option is to pull the good bits out and use them elsewhere, which I’ve considered for my story, and I’m sure authors do it all the time, but then again, I feel I’d be killing something I was mostly enjoying off!

Thanks to everyone for the useful comments. I’ll likely write the story, because I mostly liked what I’d already written, but would only publish if I felt comfortable with the final product. As per usual

Thefireflies said:

It’s not that I can’t write about it, but I’m aware of many sensitive issues here, where there is ongoing pain and hurt, and so if I were to write the story I began, I’d like to make the indigenous people in the story credible without using stereotypes.

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I would have some of the same problems writing about Native Americans, so I see that issue, especially if you don't have a background with them. Research helps in that regard. I don't know about Oz, but here there are Native Americans from many different backgrounds who have written about their culture and their experience.

Among Native Americans, the variations are enormous, so I expect that is true in Oz. Your character may have nothing more than DNA that links them to their people, with no cultural connection. At the other extreme, they could live in a traditional community, speaking their original language and following their original faith. Or they could be drug dealers or prostitutes who suffer rejection by their own community.

There's no substitute for research.

I can think of a few successful writers who have researched a subject so thoroughly, and immersed themselves so completely in that alternate reality that their characters become believable and true.

For instance, JRR Tolkien's Ring stories came out a life's work of studying English and Scandinavian mythology. What we saw in his stories was only the tip of the iceberg of his creation. By drawing on that body of study, he was able to create a world that rang true to that sort of storytelling, even though he never met a single orc or dwarf or elf.

Athalia said:

I can think of a few successful writers who have researched a subject so thoroughly, and immersed themselves so completely in that alternate reality that their characters become believable and true.

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They're rather deep within their comfort zones, then. Going further takes effort. RL Stevenson wrote Jeckyll & Hyde quickly, destroyed it because it terrified him, then rewrote it quickly because he felt compelled. THAT was outside his comfort zone. More than a few creators of poems, stories, dramas, reluctantly crafted something uncomfortable they felt would surely fail -- that succeeded.

Side note: Did EA Poe feel comfortable with all that weird stuff? Exactly ONE of his works was republished in his lifetime, an illustrated natural history guide to molluscs (seashells). Maybe he should have stayed away from graveyards and stuck to popular science.

Hypoxia said:

They're rather deep within their comfort zones, then. .

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You're right about that. Tolkien was probably more in his comfort zone with his fantasy world than with the real one. I was conflating "comfort zone" with "experience" since the thread seemed to be doing the same, with questioning the wisdom of authors writing about environments that they didn't inhabit in real life. My mistake.

Athalia said:

I can think of a few successful writers who have researched a subject so thoroughly, and immersed themselves so completely in that alternate reality that their characters become believable and true.

For instance, JRR Tolkien's Ring stories came out a life's work of studying English and Scandinavian mythology. What we saw in his stories was only the tip of the iceberg of his creation. By drawing on that body of study, he was able to create a world that rang true to that sort of storytelling, even though he never met a single orc or dwarf or elf.

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Mary Renault’s books on Alexander the Great would be another good example I think.