Young Writers Society

I do this a lot, but sometimes I wonder if I'm even it doing it realistically.

Since I have experienced tragedy and death in my life, I know how to write about it because I know what it feels like. However, I write romance as well, even though I have never experienced it, so sometimes I worry that it sounds stupid to people who have experienced romance. Is it possible to write a believable story with experiences you have never felt, or must you learn these things before you know how to write them?

Well, it depends. You dont have to experiance everything to write about it. A general knowledge can help and your imagination can come up with some pretty cool stuff.

I suggest read some romance novels. Tabitha kind said in writers digest you should know what you write. So, do some research if you are worried about it.

I've been told I write very seductive fade outs to sex scenes, even though I'm a virgin. And very convincing romances.

It's possible.

I kinda "cheat" when I'm writing about something I haven't experienced myself. For instance, If I'm talking about a beach in Venice sometime in the 1500s, I'll talk about the sand, the sun, and other basic things I do know quite a bit about from experience, and only gloss over the differences I read about while I was researching the subject.

I've experienced very little in the way of roamnce but I've written a fair few love poems, some negative and some positive. In fact my quote is the first stanza of an extremely negative love poem and I think it works pretty well. In other words I don't think you need to write about things you've experienced. We certainly wouldn't have fantasy and science fiction if it was necessary.

Yes. Definitely. I write about things ALL the time that I've never experienced. I think it helps to have a vivid imagination, and it can never hurt to ask someone who HAS experienced it to describe it to you (which might get a little awkward if it's the romance..... ) although I don't think you HAVE to, as long as you think you understand it. More likely than not you'll get some critiques on it when you hand out drafts to be read and corrected (if you do that, but I think it's always a good idea. )

Yep. I've never met a naga, or gone into Reflection, and yet I write about it.

It's mainly why I stick to fantasy- I'm such a stay-at-home, I can twist everything around my imagination.

Mostly, if you understand the subject, you should be OK. Writing drafts is a good idea. LOL. xD

Basically, read what snap ^ says and ignore me. XD

I think that if you get into the right mindset and think about it enough, you could write about experiencing anything.
It's really just thinking about how you'd react in that situation, and your characters

Often times, it's not about how much you know, but how well you can research, though this sounds a bit strange in the context of romance.

I think it's possible to write romance without having experienced it. And emotionally, it might be helpful to forget about the norms and think about what you or your characters would do in a given situation

Hope that helped!

Detail wise, no, it cannot be done realistically enough. Eventually your imagination will get the better of you. I dabbled in Romance, and both stories fell flat on their face, LOL! I guess I'm not a very hugging, touchy-feely person. Both stories failed because of description.

On the other hand, one can still dabble in a genre that they have little life experiences about as long as it's done in a subtle way.

I wrote an entire novel about a girl whose parents had died, and at that point no one close to me had died (still, only one person close to me has died and I still don't really know much) but I have spent so much time over the years wondering what it would be like if my parents died, I found it easy.

I find it surprisingly easy to write about experiences I've never had.

I just act the scene out, improvise it, with me playing the character and my walls playing everything else. I usually tape record this, because it's good dialogue material. Plus it gives me a firsthand feel of the emotions necessary.

I agree with Razorblade_Saint.

You can write about something you have not experienced (imagination comes into use here) and I think that imagining yourself as the characters is a good way of writing. I do it like that a lot of the time.

Research is also great. If you know all the technical stuff about what you're writing about then you can do the more writer-ish stuff, like description and characters. So research and imagination is what allows you to write about something you don't know about.

Alainna
xxxxx

In some cases. I write about a lot of murders and crazy people and shoot outs, and I haven't experienced any of these things. I don't know if I write them realistically, but those who I show my stories to, generally enjoy them and don't have problems with the material. Then again, I research quite a lot.

Three keys:

1.) Like Adam said, you need a general knowledge of the subject you're writing about. VERY important.

2.) Research is very useful, but it doesn't give insight into personality traits or, say, sex. That's where imagination comes in. Still, wikipedia and google are very useful tools for subjects you know nothing about.

3.) Don't write about something you know nothing about. I know nothing about sex. I don't write about sex. So far, I haven't needed to. Very simple principle