This week: Is Experience Important? Edited by: Legerdemain  
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Is Experience Important?
The idea for this newsletter came from a trip I'm planning. It's a cruise, and one of the excursions you can take is one where you go out on a catamaran and then do some snorkeling. I'm a little indecisive. I've sailed on a tall ship and done plenty of boating, but I have no idea what it will be like on a catamaran. So, researching what a catamaran does, I see it tilts. Yikes.
I can swim, but it looks a little frightening to be falling off a sailboat, and you know...critters in the ocean. I'm excited about trying something new, but the thought came to mind... Do I need to experience things to write about them? Obviously, the internet helps. You can watch videos, look at web pages, and read testimonials. Those things could give me a good idea of what my character would feel while experiencing a certain adventure.
The phrase "write what you know" is often advice for authors. But do you really need to experience them in person? Can an author imagine and infer what that experience would be like? And then, of course, twist that into a plot that would make good reading. I feel a good imagination can help, especially if you're writing fantasy. The world is yours, then. Even in a fantasy, it's helpful if a reader can relate to your characters and setting.
In the meantime, I have to find out how far these things tilt.
This month's question: Do you need to experience something to write it well?
Answer below  Editors love feedback!  |
WDC January Site Contest
The task is simple: Write a letter to yourself and tell you what your goals are for 2026!
Excerpt: Keeping that in mind, this daily contest will get your creative mind to write, write, write! How? You won't have TIME to correct. :) The judging will be based on how well you followed the prompt and how creative you were with it, not just on how well you write.
Excerpt: ”Rehab nepes yegerah magiwn.” Karl’s words were uttered hesitantly as his finger traced the Hebrew words carved near the cave entrance. “A greedy man stirs up strife,” Otto translated. “The first half of Proverbs chapter twenty-eight, verse twenty-five,” I provided. "’A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.’ An odd thing to be inscribed on the entrance of a king’s treasury.”
Excerpt: RIP! That name is attached to my most unpleasant memory. In second grade, I was playing on the monkey bars. The bell rang, and when I let go and dropped to the ground, my left leg had pushed upward, which put a severe strain on my pants. Most of my clothes were hand-me-downs; the threads aged and weakened by the wear of two older brothers. That sound, Rip! Echoes in my memory. My butt, covered only by homemade flour sack underwear, was exposed to the world!
Excerpt: Her smile? Contagious… gorgeous.Even the way she thumbed the menu, holding her martini like it was a tiny scepter.How did I, a lowlife cashier with a credit score lower than his IQ, bag a dime like her?“Does your alfredo have onion in it?” Julia asked the waiter.“No onions, miss.”“Okay, great, I’m allergic. I’ll have the shrimp alfredo, please.”
Excerpt: Burning sagebrush stung at Jessa's nostrils. She looked up from her sewing, through the open window. Thick, black tendrils of smoke came rushing across the desert, driven by flames devouring drought-starved scrub. Outside, her father and siblings were working in the garden. She cried out to them, "Run!"
{b-item} Excerpt: Debra was a very sad space tarantula, because her human was sick. She had discovered the human only recently, clearly missing six of the normal eight legs, and completely lacking the ability to make a web.
Excerpt: The semester at Shiz was winding down. Finals were on the go through the week, finally in the home stretch. Lurlinemas was soon. Decorations were strung along the architecture of Shiz, professors perhaps trying their hardest to bring some cheer among the stress. White waves of snow rippled over the landscape in thick, soft layers. Many Shiz students had finished early and departed to their homeland for the holiday. Some were still left behind; among them, Elphaba and Galinda. |
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This month's question: Do you need to experience something to write it well?
Answer below Editors love feedback! ?
Last month's "Action/Adventure Newsletter (November 19, 2025)" question: Do your family gatherings give you fodder for stories?
BIG BAD WOLF is Merry: Sometimes.
Charles 🐾: I think most things I experience in real life typically correlate to my writing, even messy, dramatic family gatherings.
Dave's try to catch up.: Of course they do.
N.A Miller: has not had a true family gathering for a very long time. over 25 years now. So I can say no to this.
Jeffrey Meyer: Not good ones. For some reason, only tragic or unhappy stories.
Pumpkin in a New Year: Crazy, insane, nobody will believe this, kind of story.
Mousethyme: Our gathering isn't going to be all family. Friends new and old have been invited. I look forward to sharing stories with them and studying their mannerisms.
TheBusmanPoet: No. Family has been cut off since 2016. Just myself and my cats.
jackson: Sometimes.
TJ says, "keep on keeping on!": In my family, it would be crazy Uncle TJ. Actually my nephew informed me that his dad,, my brother, used the term eccentric. I wear that title like a crown!
Winter Wonderin' Wanderin': Oh, yes! They are well aware.
Thanks to everyone for your responses, they're much appreciated! L~
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Action/Adventure: January 14, 2026 Issue [#13552]
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