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One of the first maxims writers hear is to "write what you know." Presumably, the younger you are the less you know. This has nothing to do with intelligence, but rather experience. I think it's fair to assume that a nineteen-year-old screenwriter hasn't experienced as much as a twenty-five or forty-five-year-old screenwriter.
But another way of looking at the "write what you know" rule is to interpret to mean "write what you know about emotionally."
For example, a thirty-five-year-old screenwriter who has never experienced the death of a parent, sibling or loved one--or anyone close to him--will not "know" death emotionally. But if a twenty-year-old screenwriter lost his father at the age of eleven, he will know the pain, anguish and loss of having a parent die.
One must assume that the twenty-year-old will have a far deeper emotional understanding of death than that thirty-five-year-old.
One can't "imagine" what it's like to lose a loved one. To truly write about it you have to live it.
Same with sex. And love. Unless you've been in love or experienced sex or had your heart broken, writing about it will be bullshit.
So avoid the bullshit. Write what you know about emotionally. |
