Current Events > Serious question. It's about storytelling.

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CE has said to me, on multiple occasions, that you can't write a fiction book about something, unless you live in the relevant country, or lived through the appropriate time period, or both. For example, based on what people on CE have said, I'm not qualified to write a book set mostly or entirely in America, because I've never been to America, despite having spent most of my life watching American TV, American films, listening to American music, and reading American books...to say nothing of speaking to American online for a number of years. Another example would be if I wanted to write about the Guy Fawkes trying to blow up Parliament. I'm British, but since I wasn't alive 400 years ago, and didn't live through that event, and didn't live through the culture of the time and place, I'm not able to write a book on the subject.

Do you agree or disagree with what people have said, that I've just laid out? If so, why?

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Bump.
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I rather doubt a significant amount of people told you that. Though, it is important to do research on that area and time. People write stuff all the time about some foreign place and think some things would work the same way they do there as it does where they are from.
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I disagree, but you DO need to do substantial prep to be able to do it justice though. Resesrch everything you can about the time/place.

But, sometimes research isn't even (that) neccesary. If it's something like America, a lot of people from other countries already know a lot about it. Plus, Western countries are often similar to each other.
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no. of course you can write about whatever you want.

the quality of what you write depends on your knowledge and writing ability, however. The quality is not necessarily linked to how authentic something is, either

It would not matter for you. If your posts over the years have showed me anything, it's that you don't have a firm grasp on human connections. You don't get what makes people tick, and you can't truly understand the likes and desires of others. It's only a guess, but I would have to believe that your writing is likely awful. You come across as incredibly unintelligent while still being quite snobbish and pretentious.
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MeIon Bread posted...

But, sometimes research isn't even (that) neccesary. If it's something like America, a lot of people from other countries already know a lot about it. Plus, Western countries are often similar to each other.

I'd agree with that to a reasonable extent. Certainly in the present day a lot of big western democracies are very similar in the broad details.

But you only need to go as far back as say the 1960s and there are big differences. America, for example, still has substantial racial segregation that paints a very different picture to 1960s Britain.

MeIon Bread posted...

But, sometimes research isn't even (that) neccesary. If it's something like America, a lot of people from other countries already know a lot about it. Plus, Western countries are often similar to each other.

This is how you get something like a person in Kansas taking an hour to drive to NYC. >_>
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MeIon Bread posted...

But, sometimes research isn't even (that) neccesary. If it's something like America, a lot of people from other countries already know a lot about it. Plus, Western countries are often similar to each other.

This comment makes me think you probably aren't qualified to write an accurate story in America
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It's funny, everybody so far has voted to say that it's okay to write stuff you haven't experienced yourself, but I've had several people tell me the opposite on CE. Was it just a vocal minority? Does this mean I'm allowed to write more stuff, than just late 20th and early 21st century stuff, set in Britain, specifically the West Country?

Of course, CE does like to tell people what they can't do / what they're wrong about.

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uwnim posted...

MeIon Bread posted...

But, sometimes research isn't even (that) neccesary. If it's something like America, a lot of people from other countries already know a lot about it. Plus, Western countries are often similar to each other.

This is how you get something like a person in Kansas taking an hour to drive to NYC. >_>

That made me laugh. If actually know the geography of certain countries very well. I have a strange and sick fascination with it. All that time on Google, Wikipedia and Google Earth was interesting.

I think a writer shouldn't just stick to one place and time period, anyway. That's what a vulgar little hack does. Look at Stephen King, and all those stories set in Maine. He seems terrified of writing something other than America in general, except in his more science fictiony or fantastical stuff. I would be surprised if he could even find certain major countries, like Japan or Spain on a map.

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If you're writing fictionfor your own enjoyment to satisfy your own creative needs, write about anything you want. But if you're writing with ambitions of professional progress (getting an agent, getting published, etc) I would recommend only writing about things you know or have extensively researched, as you will always have competition that are going to have work that will come across that little bit more polished otherwise.

MeIon Bread posted...

But, sometimes research isn't even (that) neccesary. If it's something like America, a lot of people from other countries already know a lot about it. Plus, Western countries are often similar to each other.

This is all really false, there are a lot of cultural differences between "Western countries". There can be a lot of cultural differences between US states, or even counties in states.

So watching CSI every night and listening to Katy Perry doesn't really qualify you to write about life in America if you've never lived there. I'm an American and I'm not even qualified to write about life in like 3/4 of America without additional research.
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