Why do screenwriters tell people to 'write what you know'?

[ironpony]

I hear that all the time on sites on like this, and on some episodes of film riot, they even said to do that. But writers break this rule all the time. In a movie like Die Hard for example, the writers know didn't bother to pay attention to real police procedures, or logistics, and just wrote it all in a way that best served the action scenes. Not that there is anything wrong with that. In a show like NYPD Blue, they don't really know a lot about court laws for example, or at least don't apply them, cause they want their stories to go a certain way. One movie, I can't recall what it was, had an autistic character in but I was told by someone in real life, who is familiar with that, that the movie didn't do all it's research accurately. Yet they still wrote it and it got made into a movie.

So it seems writers have complete license to make up whatever laws, psychology, etc. they want for a movie and nobody cares. So why tell writers to only write what they know?

[Josh Bass]

Hey man, the saying isnt "write what you know ACCURATELY"! HEYO!

[Green Hornet]

If you are listening to advice about writing instead of giving advice, most likely you have not made anything from writing to merit giving advice.
If you are writing stuff all the time, and for various shows, you likely don't need advice, and can write well enough to make something work.
From what I see, writers do well writing what they know, or have deep feelings about. That usually is the good work I see from them.
Every Actor I know, and think can act well, when ever they try to shoot, a film, it sucks.
When ever they are just the actor, they are good. They know acting.
A good writer can write anything, an average writer only writes good stuff that came from something deep inside them.
I think every person has at least one good story in them. IF they tell that one story, it will be better to most, than the off the wall one, they think will be funny.

[ironpony]

I have a couple of good stories in me so far, but probably my best strength so far is acting. That's what I've always wanted to do. I took on directing projects mostly to get myself noticed, as bad as that sounds lol. But have been told I do pretty good at directing so far, for my first few. Writing I am getting into and want to improve. So the advice is mainly for people wanting to start out then.

[bruceallen]

Die Hard was based on a book.... written by a guy who specialized in crime novels... who actually used to work at a detective agency... which his father ran. Then that book was given to screenwriters who knew the genre well.

So yes, they were all writing from a place of some kind of knowledge. Not necessarily of correct procedure... but they at least they knew how to fake it!

More importantly, the themes in Die Hard are universal and I'm sure that the writers drew upon personal experience for that stuff - which is really what matters, when you think about it.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Matt Harris]

here's your answer from scorcese's mouth: he made mean streets because that was the world he grew up in. he knew the intricate details of that world, and he knew he could translate it's authenticity into a film. and he did.

"write what you know" means, take your life experiences and put them to script.

if you are a lifeguard at a beach, and you are an avid comic book collector, then incorporate those facets of your life, that you know so well, into a fictional story.

because THAT story will be a truer story than if you wrote a viking movie (unless you research the hell out of vikings).

this is what people mean when they say "write what you know".

[JoeRawlins]

"what you know" is not exclusive to what your personal experience is. Hence how many movies include the title "inspired by the novel..." Great writers who want to write about a topic from outside their experience do a lot of research. But new writers who don't have a lot of time might want to start from the experience of what they have personally been through.

Other movies in the same genre count for research, in my opinion.

[Matt Harris]

I was just talking about this:

In a very telling "audio commentary" accompanying Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese recounts his early lessons in directing received from the maverick director John Cassavetes. Scorsese was encouraged to follow the classic adage and "write what you know". The years have shown that Scorsese knows New York and has an eye for the underside of ambition, the fixed gaze of obsession, and the extremes a small man will go to when the world seems set against him.

[PremiumIC]

You write what you know because it's the easiest thing to do starting out. Research isn't required, you're the expert, you're bringing something unique to the table. If you write about a topic you know nothing about that's fine, as long as you spend the time researching the topic. But as a spec writer you really need to focus on getting words on the f'ing page man. Just Write. If you just write and stop reading books on how to write your skills will improve. That doesn't mean you can't find something valuable in the books, but just stick to your ability first.

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

So it seems writers have complete license to make up whatever laws, psychology, etc. they want for a movie and nobody cares. So why tell writers to only write what they know?

A film, in fact any story, will have its own internal logic, laws, and dynamics... There is no 'iron man'... but in terms of the logic of the film, Tony Stark is a super genius, the son of a super genius, and so he can in that film 'invent' things which seem to defy real world physics. That being said... Tony Stark does not defy the laws of the human psyche... he follows a pattern that is seen in the real world, in the first film he moves from a self centered and almost psychopathic disregard for others, to someone at least at some level 'cares'...

As for making up laws of psychology... Freud did a lot of that so why can't script writers...

As for writers writing what they know... I really do wish more writers would get drunk, stuff a couple hundred dollars down the garterbelts of strippers, and wake up in back alleys with unexplained injuries... especially women writers...