I’m a city girl moved to the country. Anne of Green Gables is a favorite series. Perhaps that is one reason this type of plot interested me. After all, writers are encouraged to write what they know.
That’s a good idea as far as it goes. Few of us have led such adventurous lives to really live up to this. In fact, although I grew up outside Los Angeles, “Broken Promises” is set in New York City, a place I have visited twice.
Gaining Experiences
My depictions of New York City are limited in the novel because I did want to follow the write what they know admonition. My last visit to the Big Apple was a two week stay. During that time I explored Central Park, a way to stay sane surrounded by so many buildings and people. Times Square, Broadway, Coney Island, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History got stuffed into that two weeks.
At the time, my novel was not even an idea. Writing was not on my agenda. I was on vacation, the first one I’d had in many years. Although I was not aware of it, I was storing up all those memories so I could draw on them years later.
Mining Memories
Many writers keep journals. I don’t. I have pictures and each picture tells me a story of a place, a time, a reaction.
Every place I go, every job I hold, every person I meet is a chance to learn something new. As I write, my memory reminds me of similar places and people from my past.
Different experiences bring back emotions as well as situations. Hazel loses her father in the novel. My family lost my nephew. My father had died leaving behind a letter, a letter from the dead.
It’s possible to look places up, even take virtual tours now. People write about lots of things on the internet, even as I am doing now. But these are second hand.
Write What They Know.
To truly write about something, it helps to have actually seen and felt it in reality. At least experience something similar. That’s when words stop being just words and create a fictional reality.