Most people have heard the recommendation to “write what you know”, even those who aren’t writers. That’s pretty solid, logical advice, considering it’s kind of tough to write about things you know nothing about. Where would you get the frame of reference to present an informed account? Of course, research is sometimes helpful in providing a information that can help you fake it. And then there’s imagination. Women writers create male characters all the time, and vice versa for men who write women. We’ve been researching those topics all our lives; we’ve observed the opposite sex on a daily basis and our imaginations help fill in the blanks when we hit a wall.
Back to the advice, though, it’s why most of my novels take place in the western states. Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Montana…I grew up here, I live here, and I write here. It’s what I know. Cowboys, farmers, ranchers, and blue-collar workers are who I know. Small town life is the life I know. It’s easy for me to describe the surroundings and create characters that fit right into those surroundings. I know how the people should act and respond in any given situation. The problem sometimes is that, as any writer will tell you, once you create characters, they tend to take on a mind of their own. That’s why I said I know how they should act—and that’s where it gets interesting because they don’t always follow the story line according to my plan.
But that’s what free will is all about, right? Doing your own thing, regardless of expectations and other people’s plans for you. In Cedar Ridge, it’s what Jessica Hayes is up against. Her father expects her to marry the man he hand-picked to take over the family business, and that man expects her to sit back and play the part of the seen-but-rarely-heard corporate wife. After a lifetime of trying to toe the line and having it get her nowhere, she’s ready to show them both that she can be so much more. Funny enough, in the process of not acting how the men in her life expect her to, she also ignored how I expected her to act and became a completely different person than the one I pictured when I first started writing the book. It’s been an adventure; I’ll say that much.
It’s also been an education. Turns out, even when you write what you know, you can still learn a thing or two.
