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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43636
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Write. What. You. Know.

This has been said so many times that nobody hears it anymore, but it that is because it is true. You cannot make a story engaging that you don't _know_ in a deep and real way. Before you close up your project, let me explain that there are many ways to come to know something. You can learn it (not like a book report, more like converting to a new religion: you have to live what you are trying to know).

If you decide to not pursue this, please don't do it for the wrong reason. The right reason is: "I cannot internalize this story and character to the point where they flow out of me naturally when I'm writing". The wrong reason is: "I may be guilty of thoughtcrime for writing this." (That's a 1984 reference). If you are going to be straight-jacketed in your artistic expression by your religion, whatever it happens to be, your expression will suffer a lot. It doesn't matter if you are a Christian contemporary novelist who refuses to use normal, natural language dialog or a communist who can't write anything that might be spun as positive about specified "enemies of the state", the arts always suffer under the boot of dogma, so just throw that "cultural appropriation" bogeyman out right now if you ever want to write something worth reading.

On the other hand, maybe it is not the right project because you have no good avenue to truly know your subject. That's fair. Your story has to be real and true to you in a way that is personal, or it won't be personal to your readers. If you can't bridge that gap, don't write it. I do believe that it is entirely possible to deeply and truly understand cultures and backgrounds other than your own, it just takes work and (preferably) immersion.

Original score: 1