Write What You Know: Difference between revisions

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'''[[Ricky Gervais]]:''' ''"Well, yeah, I've been - it's called 'Brain Jail"'' }}

Many shows, books, movies and other media that depict a real world activity (police procedures, military procedures, wilderness survival - hell, even hobbies like [[Pac Man Fever|playing video games]]) - often [[Did Not Do the Research|get it totally wrong]], with plenty of glaring flaws that anyone who has engaged in that activity could quickly point out.

Many shows, books, movies and other media that depict a real world activity (police procedures, military procedures, wilderness survival - hell, even hobbies like [[Pac-Man Fever|playing video games]]) - often [[Did Not Do the Research|get it totally wrong]], with plenty of glaring flaws that anyone who has engaged in that activity could quickly point out.

Some people avoid this problem by Doing The Research, and some even go so far as to [[Shown Their Work|Show Their Work]], going out of their way to show off facts that they learned while researching the activity.

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Note: This is '''NOT''' just about people who write about their current interest or hobby, but instead is about whether or not the interest or hobby is depicted very realistically because the author does it for a living or grows up around it, etc. If it is, then it's [[Write What You Know]]. If it isn't depicted realistically, then they're no different than any other author.

* Melville went on a couple whaling voyages (and wrote books about them - ''Typee'' and ''Omoo'') before writing ''[[Moby Dick]]''.

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* [[Michael Crichton]] spent years in medical school and then wrote a bunch of books about doctors and medicine, and also created the TV show ''[[ER]]''.

* [[John Grisham]], a lawyer, writes basically nothing but courtroom dramas.

* The authors Andy McNab and Chris Ryan are both former members of the SAS, who served together on the same disastrous mission behind Iraqi lines during Operation Desert Storm that formed the basis for the memoirs that launched their careers. <ref>Both books also turned out to be [[Unreliable Narrator|self-serving]], [[Based On a Great Big Lie|heavily fictionalised]] and [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis|very unflattering about the other]].</ref> McNab's protagonist in particular is an undisguised [[Author Avatar]].

* The authors Andy McNab and Chris Ryan are both former members of the SAS, who served together on the same disastrous mission behind Iraqi lines during Operation Desert Storm that formed the basis for the memoirs that launched their careers. <ref>Both books also turned out to be [[Unreliable Narrator|self-serving]], [[Based on a Great Big Lie|heavily fictionalised]] and [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis|very unflattering about the other]].</ref> McNab's protagonist in particular is an undisguised [[Author Avatar]].

** In a similar vein but much less famous, or controversial, RAF Tornado pilot John Nichol co-wrote two non-fiction books about his Gulf War experiences with navigator/WSO John Peters before embarking upon a solo career as a writer of thrillers whose protagonist is invariably a male RAF pilot... who [[Wish Fulfillment|always has it off with a beautiful woman before the end of the story,]] but he's good enough that nobody really minds.

* Forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs writes the original novels, ''Bones'' (later used to create [[Bones]]). Two guesses what Temperance "Bones" Brennan does for a living.