Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Write What You Know

There’s a lot of schools of thought on this topic, and I stick to the idea that you don’t have to be a rock climber to study rock climbing, hence you can still know rock climbing and still write about rock climbing.

To further elaborate on my entry I Am A Hippie on my personal blog, Crystal’s Erotiblog, otherwise known as The Great Zero Comments Blog, I freely admit I have turned into somewhat of a hippie in my growing years (okay totally into a hippie). This is probably what I’ll look like when I’m fifty.

Okay maybe not quite, but I have to admit I’ve adopted some habits others might find strange in my effort to save Mother Earth and myself. Sometimes individually, sometimes in a joint venture. For instance, I use organic shampoo because I am both concerned about what kinds of chemicals I douse myself with, and concerned about what I pour down the drain into my local ecosystem. I read the nutrition label of everything I’m going to eat with a critical eye. Because we have a swimming pool and a corner house with more lawn than you’d ever want, my husband and I keep five gallon buckets in our showers to catch all that cold water while we’re waiting for the shower to heat up. Quote: “No need to waste, and I’m not paying extra for water if we get fined for overusage.” Yes, dear. As long as you lug it to the washing machine for me, we’re good.

I realized, in thinking about this post, that my love for organic food had crept its way into my manuscript when my hero discovered my heroine’s refrigerator is full of natural and organic products.

I guess all my characters are hippies too.


4 comments:

Paris said...

Hey, Hippie Chick;-)

I think you make a good point when you mention that you think that your characters are hippies too. Finding we've put bits and pieces of ourselves in our characters is something we all do. How much more real can you get!

Serena Shay said...

Peace, Love and Happiness, Flower child!!

:) I agree, I think as writers there is usually some small component of ourselves in our characters.

Great post!!

Savanna Kougar said...

Crystal, if that's the definition of a hippie, I'm right there with you. I try to eat organic as possible and read labels religiously.
I also do my best not to waste water, hauling it out to my little garden, all organic, btw.
Loved that pic!!!
Feel free to include your erotiblog here, as you can.

Francesca Hawley said...

I try to be more careful, but I'm defintely not as green as I should be then I feel guilty that I should be doing more. My mom did a really good job of instilling a lot of guilt complexes in me. -big grin-

As to parts of us creeping into our characters, I think that's a given. Whenever I write about a librarian for example, my attitudes about library work trickle into the story. I don't think you can avoid it and it wouldn't be YOUR story if it didn't have a piece of you in it.