On Getting Ideas
“Write what you know.” That’s writing advice of long standing. As one story goes, Louisa May Alcott followed this advice and wrote Little Women after a publisher pointed out her tales of lords and ladies were not authentic.
I’ve been asked often if I wrote about my own family in Escape from Assisted Living. Is it a case of write-what-you-know? Yes and no.
Because we live near Chicago, I knew the settings of the Loop well, and I have no brothers or sisters, which gave me insight on the closeness and conflicts of a small family. And I visited many senior living options as my father considered (and rejected) moving to one. So, his voice rings through in Betty’s initial observations.
Thus my own experience provided the underpinnings of the story–the settings and the traditional roles and expectations Betty and Sharon must navigate as they both age. Then I asked questions, for example, what can happen when caregiving responsibilities become reversed? Is it possible to have independence?
Beyond that, my imagination took over for a plot that could exist within the parameters set by those basics. I think that’s what “write what you know” means.