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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/12829
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have this problem - I generally dislike fantasy worlds and science fiction set up in space or different planets. So I don't want to write about such things. I always loved more grounded stories about the real world. It doesn't matter if there is fantasy of science fiction elements in there, it is setting has to be close to reality as we know it, not the story itself. The common advice for writers in realistic setting is 'Write about what you know', but there is the problem. I really don't want to set the novel I write in my own country for several reasons. And I don't feel like I can realistically present a culture and everyday lives of people from other countries. I've done insane amounts of research over the course of my life, studying several foreign cultures. I can answer almost every question about several countries and their cultures. But that's just facts, you can't actually think like representative of another culture, you can't actually 'get it' if you never been there, in that environment. What should I do then? Try to invent a setting that looks like reality but isn't actually a real world? This approach seems cheap and even if it didn't, I'm not sure how to come up with something like that for it to not to cause repulsion.

Original score: -2