How to Write What You Don’t Know.
Why should you write what you know? Sometimes you just want to write about things you don’t know about! And really, no one knows about dragons, and yet, they appear in books!
That’s what writing and imagination are for, right?
Let’s say you want to write about something you don’t know about that exists. Something like a sport, a location, or job. How do you go about it?
The short answer: Research!
You always want to make sure you’re doing your best to understand the topic and to present it accurately to the world.
I assume that’s why you’re here! Because you want to get it right.
So let’s get started. Here are some best practices for writing about things you don’t know about.
Note:
For the purposes of this blog post, I’m talking about topics you don’t know much about like sports and locations not writing from a perspective that’s not yours. I’m not here to tell you what you can and can’t write or to debate Own Voices (which I believe we should be writing, publishing, and reading more of).
1. Do some preliminary research.
Learn a bit about your topic and find out the basics. What’s great about the internet is that there’s so much quality information online that’s been posted by experts!
YouTube is a great place to start because there’s often content created specifically for newbies. YouTube is also helpful when you’re researching something that’s dynamic, like a sport, so you can see how it works instead of just reading about it.
How much you’ll need to know before you get started will vary depending on how big of a role the topic has in your book. If you’re writing a sports romance where the sport features heavily in the book, you’ll need to know more than if you’re writing a side character who likes said sport.
Here’s an example of a video that would be helpful for learning the basics of hockey, for example:
2. Keep track of the details as you write.
While you draft, flag bits that you write that you’ll need to look up later, and only look up what you think will be important to get right for the plot.
For example, if you’re writing a hockey romance, you probably want to look where NHL teams are located, so you don’t have to rewrite all the scenes that describe Houston, Texas, when the team is actually located in Dallas.
However, flag minor details, like the score of a game, and check that it makes sense later.
How you decide to flag something is up to you. You can highlight it in a certain colour, surround the detail by square brackets so you can search for it easily later, or use the comment feature to make a note to yourself.
Here are a couple examples from my own writing.
An example of a flagged detail to verify later using square brackets.
An example of a flagged detail to verify later using the comment feature.
3. Go back and check flagged instances for major details that affect story.
Once you’ve finished your draft, go back and check all the instances you flagged for research. Make a note of the ones that might have story impacts.
Make sure those bigger details make sense factually. If they don’t, figure out how you can change what happens and make story edits accordingly. Then, continue on as you normally would with your writing process.
For example, I wrote a scene where a hockey player was traded during a game. This doesn’t happen. (Okay, it has, but there’s much more nuance to it than I can get into here and ultimately doesn’t matter. But fellow hockey fans, I see you.) So I’m going to need to make some story adjustments to make it both accurate to how trades are made and to make it make sense narratively.
4. Check flagged instances for smaller details.
Once your story is solid and you’re looking at language edits, you can check all the remaining flagged details. Do some research for each one to make sure you’ve got it right to the best of your ability.
Smaller details would be things like: Can you actually have a conversation with someone through the plexiglass at a hockey game? (The answer is not really.) So if your characters are having a full conversation with no miscommunication through plexiglass, how can you change that so the characters get the point across through gestures and lip reading?
This might affect your scene a bit, but it won’t change the whole story.
Another example would be a detail like how many people are on the ice at once. If you’ve written there are seven people from one hockey team on the ice, you can easily change that to six (if you’re including the goalie). Otherwise, you’ll take a too-many-men penalty.
5. Get someone who knows the topic to read your book (or those sections you flagged).
There’s nothing better than having someone who knows what they’re talking about read your work. They’ll tell you about every detail you got wrong.
Sometimes, you’ll override them because of creative licence, but often they’ll catch details you didn’t even know were wrong.
For example, did you know that a hockey game is played in an arena, not a stadium? And did you know that, unlike in boxing, the arena is the entire building?
If you’re not sure how to find someone like this, there are a couple ways you can go about it.
You can cold email experts.
This can be great if you find someone who’s interested in promoting their expertise. However, I’d caution against asking them to read your whole novel, and instead, suggest you ask them one to three questions that are easy for them to answer and won’t take much of their time, but are questions that are hard for you to find the answers to.
You can join a group online that is dedicated to the thing you’re researching.
Fan groups dedicated to a topic usually have some incredibly knowledgeable people in them. Don’t discount someone like this just because they don’t interact with the topic professionally.
Some groups are insular and there are jerks out there, but if you come to a group as a newbie wanting to learn, lots of people are going to be happy to share their knowledge. I’d advise only asking someone to read your book/the parts you need fact-checking once you’ve become friendly with them and had a few discussions.
You can find sensitivity readers online.
This doesn’t pertain to sports or locations, but if one of your characters does have experiences that you don’t know much about, like panic attacks, or is from a community you’re not a part of, like the queer community or Muslim community, you can find sensitivity readers online. Just remember that a sensitivity reader is someone you pay.
Click here for a directory of sensitivity readers.
6. Understand you won’t get everything right.
Much like with catching typos, there is no god when it comes to being a hundred percent factually correct. However, your readers will appreciate your best efforts!
Your readers will notice the effort you’ve put into getting things right even if they don’t realize it. The details are what make up the whole picture, and trying your best to get them right will make your book that much more nuanced and full of life.
Did you know some copy editors also offer fact-checking as a service?
Not all do, so be sure to ask them. A good fact-checker will check for minor details they have access to information for, like that a hockey game has three periods not two halves, and flag areas they can’t find the answers to so you can ask an expert.
Writing what you don’t know can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. If you follow the steps listed above, you’ll have a pretty accurate book!
Did I miss any tips or tricks you use when you’re writing?
Let me know in the comments below!