There’s a saying that you’re supposed to write what you know. Generally, that’s true — the further you get from what you know the worse the work gets. I think this is why so much fantasy/sci-fi is so bad — the people writing it don’t actually know science; and they don’t know fantasy, since it’s not real; nor do they seem to even know reality, which is maybe why they find solace in fantasy/sci-fi in the first place.
But the result is that the work isn’t grounded in experience so much as in other work, like painting a picture of a picture. You’ve seen it: mix in some elves, some swords, some magic and (lately) some brooding anti-hero. Carnage, blood, killing your babies has produced a new gritty world of f&sf that is even more retarded than the old one. There’s garbage in other kinds of fiction, too, but it seems to stink more when it’s genre, I suppose because the readers are more forgiving. There’s something to be said for departure from reality, whatever else its flaws, so the bar stays low.
Anyway, setting that aside, the problem with the ‘write what you know’ bit is that it can be misleading. I’ve been working on something for the last few days, for the first time since August, really, and it’s really struck me that I’m writing the same story over and over. Or rather, some depressingly large subset of what I do is the same story with altered particulars. And the story isn’t even very good. It’s authentic, yeah, but you know what else is authentic? Sitting on the couch and watching TV for four hours, every night of your life. Lots of people do that, but we have little need for their stories.
So then I started thinking about the stuff I’ve done that I’m actually proud of; and its defining quality seems to be that its written with my head not stuck up my own ass. In other words, a departure from the solipsistic universe I know better than anyone.
So now I think the canard should be: fuck what you know. Write what you aspire to. We’ll see how that goes.