Worst writing advice. Ever: “Write what you know”

People with good intentions, even authors, can be heard here and there telling aspiring writers (more on this later) "Be sure to write what you know." Writing about what I know would be horribly boring: trust me, I work in IT. What else do I "know?" Well, let's see, I know baseball, chess, and few other odds and ends. Maybe I even know a lot about things. The problem is, I don't want to write about those. I want to write about World War II. 

"Ah ha," say the write-what-you-know people. "That's what you know!" 

Yeah, okay, you got me . . . not really. I love World War II history. I have a passion for knowledge on that era of human history and am constantly learning about it (see Passion below).

"You should still write what you know!"

Uh . . . really? No. How about “learn what you write?”

Here’s why I think write what you know is the worst advice.

1 - Imagination

Dreaming stuff up is what writers do. You know how you role play, maybe when you're taking something back to the store for a return and you play this little movie in your head about how it will go? I say this then they say that, etc.? Welcome to my world. That's how I write. I spin up a little movie and I watch it and write what I see. I'll grant you it's more complicated than that, but that's the basis for my work. Sometimes when I'm writing a scene, I don't quite know exactly what will happen, so I rely on that movie. I'm often the first reader to be surprised by an event in my own books.

If it weren't for writers' imaginations we wouldn't have stories that take place in space, or the future, or in a country different from our own. Let’s use an example: the late Tom Clancy. He single-handedly created the techno-thriller, although I’m pretty sure he wasn’t calling it that when he was writing it, he was just telling a story he’d like to read. By the way, when he sold The Hunt for Red October, he was still working as an insurance agent. So how did he “know” all that technical stuff? See Research below.

2 - Passion

As I said above, I have that exact thing for WWII history. Other people like aliens, vampires, spies, or maybe a vampire spy  (hmm . . .) , the list goes on. Write what you're passionate about. If you love it, it will come across in your writing and your readers will pick up on it.

3 - Research

Some authors, very successful ones I might add, talk about going to the place they are using as a setting to get a feel for the people and the locale. Paris does not feel like New York or London or well, anywhere. This is a great idea if you've got several thousand bucks available to make the trip. Oh wait, you don't either? Okay, then how about oh, I don't know, the internet? For both of my published books and the one I'm writing today, I use Google Earth to "find" locales. I know exactly where certain events take place on a map and have in many cases used the street view (Google maps) to see what it's like to stand right there looking around in all directions. I can describe a place as if I've actually been there because, in a technological way, I have.

Need to know how many rounds per minute a Thompson .45 caliber submachine gun fires. I did. Google. Answer: around 700 / minute, depending on the version of the weapon. By the way, I also learned that the 30-round box magazine could sometimes fall out! So everyone preferred the 20-round mag instead. What's the service ceiling for a P-51 Mustang fighter? Answer: 41,900 feet. Time to find out these answers? 10 seconds for each question. In the olden days, I'd have needed to go to the library and dig into a real book. Time: hours? Although, going back to Tom Clancy, I can imagine him back then sitting at the library, happy and contented as he digs through books and magazines about submarines, helicopters and sonar.

Yes, in a way I write what I know because I looked it up, have seen a documentary, or I've read a book on it. I read at least one book a month on WWII (non-fiction), sometimes four. I watch the History and Military channels all the time. So to be truthful, I'm really learning what I write (about) instead of the other way around.

So there. My take on that statement.

One last thing. I found this Clancy quote after I wrote my blog post above. Nice to find out I’m not alone in my thinking. And yes, I used Google. Google R my friend.

“My wife will tell you I'm practically addicted to the History Channel . . . and I read a lot of history.” ~ Tom Clancy, CNN interview on 22 August 2000

New Sgt. Dunn novel title reveal!

The title of my newest Sgt. Dunn novel is:

 

Brutal Enemy.

 

Planned publication date late this year (2014).

This is the third book in the Sgt. Dunn series and begins right about the time the second novel (Behind German Lines) ends. This book takes Dunn and Saunders on missions to Italy.

I'm 50% done with the first draft as of today (2 August 2014)!

Stay tuned for for more updates.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Warm regards,

Ronn

D-Day celebration in Normandy - best coverage

This is the best coverage I found on the D-Day celebration in Normandy:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/06/d-day-landings-70-years-anniversary-live

It's a time-stamped blog feed with great photos, so read from the bottom. There are many extra great articles on the right side of the blog.

One item of note is the clip of the RAF Red Arrows.

Thanks for stopping by.

D-Day 6 June 1944 - 70th anniversary

Please take a moment to remember the men who died in the invasion of Normandy 70 years ago.

NBC has a show at 7:00 PM CDT about Normandy that will include interviews with men who went ashore that day.

Memorial Day 2014

To all veterans: Please accept our gratitude for your service and sacrifice. Always know we respect you and hold you in the highest regard and esteem.

To the families of veterans: Thank you for your love and support toward your veteran. Your sacrifices are remembered today, too.

To the WWII veterans who went ashore on 6 June 1944: the 70th anniversary of D-Day is coming up. The people of the entire world owe you a deep gratitude that can never be repaid. The best we can do is to try to pay forward your courage, dedication, determination, and sacrifice.

In memory of my mom and my uncles who served:

Olga - U.S. Coast Guard
Amos - U.S. Army, Silver Star
Hugo - U.S. Army, Purple Heart
Norman - U.S. Army 
Lester - U.S. Navy

European theater versus the Pacific theater - Battle of Midway

While my books are focused in Europe, I have a keen interest in the Pacific war. As I've mentioned before, I read a lot of WWII non-fiction to deepen my knowledge. Additionally, I record and watch many shows on the Military and History channels. 

One recent show was about the Battle of Midway between Admirals Nimitz and Yamamoto. It gave a particularly good account of the battle. It highlighted the Japanese arrogance including their own operational security failures such as mentioning "Midway" in clear radio transmissions prior to the battle.

In what can only be described as the fog of war, or perhaps merely drawing the wrong conclusions from intelligence, the Japanese made terrible command decisions. Among them were events that led to having fueled and armed aircraft parked on the deck far too long, and the Zero air cover being too low (fighting off the Avenger torpedo bombers). This resulted in allowing the Dauntless dive bombers to arrive at the correct altitude. 

In another show, a Dauntless pilot talked about making the first hit on the aft of a carrier deck: the stress of the near-vertical dive, releasing at the right moment to get the bomb to fall where the zig-zagging carrier would be, and then pulling up out of the dive which took all of his strength. 

The final outcome was four carrier losses for the Japanese. This turned out to be the fatal blow for them because they never recovered their naval strength again. The Battle of Midway was when momentum shifted in the Pacific. From that time on, the United States began to win over and over again. This is not to say it was a forgone conclusion, that would be insulting to the sailors and marines and soldiers who died after June 7th.

This Memorial Day, please take a moment to remember those before us who gave everything. 

Why write about WWII? - Part 3

In a previous post I mentioned reading Up Periscope by Robb White, my first war story. Other things that I loved were the TV shows Combat! and 12 O'clock High. Occasionally, on Saturday morning, one of the Kansas City stations showed WWII movies, not all of them with John Wayne, but many were. The land battles, especially those with tanks, were exhilarating, the submarine movies tense, the dogfights incredible. I was always awed by the credits scrolling by at the end thanking the the Department of the Navy, or the US. Army, etc. Wow! They approved this movie! Finally, let's not forget the Rat Patrol!

On top of all that, there were two fabulous comic books about WWII: Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury. A few blocks from my house was a used comic book and record shop. Most of my meager weekly allowance was spent there, handed over with glee to the small, dark-haired man behind the counter. If I had to choose between a comic book or a Coke, the comic book won.

We're all products of our past. So is my writing. My fascination with WWII had its genesis as shown above. As I grew older, the fascination didn't abate, I just changed sources. In high school and college I studied some history and military history. In 1977, at age 25, I first read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer. I own the 1960 version, not the abridged version. I have subsequently read it twice more, all 1,242 pages of a view into utter evil. This is a must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about WWII.

It's my goal to provide my readers with several things in each book:

• a fast-paced book with lots of battle action.
• characters you can love (and care what happens to them) and others you can hate and want them to get their just rewards.
• tidbits of facts interwoven within the story.

From the feedback I receive by way of reader emails and reviews, I'm on target.

I'm working on the third Sgt. Dunn novel, which is untitled, but to which I refer as sd3. I didn't set out to recreate Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury, and until yesterday, hadn't thought about them much at all, and not during the writing of the books. Sgt. Dunn is clearly defined in my head and on paper, and while I owe part of my WWII fascination to Sgts. Rock and Fury, Sgt. Dunn is his own man. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would to love to hear from you.