Lights. Curtain. Dancers take your place. Queue music.

This past weekend a kaleidoscope of colors culminated in the 48th annual dance showcase of the studio I attend.

And if you’ve never performed on stage, Reader, here’s a small taste…

It’s sequins and sweat. Runs in your tights and running to grab your prop in time to reenter the stage on the right queue. It’s bruises and bows. Ankle braces and applause for a job well done.

It’s the exhilarating thrill of propelling yourself into a spin balanced on nothing but a few mere inches of flesh and bone. And praying to everything sacred that you don’t fall.

And it’s a lot like writing a novel.

You spend half a year crafting a work of art before presenting it to the world. And whether your audience fills the plush seats of a theater or walks among the shelves of a book shop you’ll be anxious as to whether all your hard work will pay off.

It’s a feeling I know well.

I first stepped onto a stage at 4 for a tap performance. All of us dressed as little sailor ducks, complete with little orange webbed feet over our tap shoes.

The call of “5, 6, 7, 8”, the bright glare of stage lights, the scratch of sequins across skin… Decades later they’re things I know as well as brushing my teeth.

They say to “Write what you know.” But that advice can often be too vague to be helpful. So instead…

Here Are 5 Examples From My Own Stories Where I Used What I Knew:

1) Dancing is Life

I’ve spent the majority of my life dancing and performing on a stage. As I mentioned, I started dancing when I was 4 and was in 25 musicals between the ages of 8-18.

I’ve used what I experienced and learned from countless auditions and practices as well as performances in my Marked Ones Trilogy, my novel Predestined, and a short story from a now out of print Romance anthology I’m expanding into a novel, A Dance of Fallen Stars.

2) Role-Playing

Twice monthly we host a role-playing game at our home and over the last decade, the majority of those campaigns have been set in Yerth. The world of Yerth is the creation of my husband, however my characters—Ash and Night—and the Suna Lamassu I created for my Fantasmical 2023 short story collection are entirely mine.

3) Art Imitates Life

Between 2005-2008 I went to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where I went on to graduate with a BFA in Illustration. I used some of my experiences during those 3 years for various scenes in my Marked Ones Trilogy. Including one in which the lead character Patrick and his best friend Connor end up at the SF MOMA completing one of the same finals I had to do for 20th Century Art History.

The two make comical commentary about the art while discussing other events that are currently going on in the plot.

4) Not So Touristy Places

Despite writing a whole series set in San Francisco, my 3 leads in the Marked Ones Trilogy almost never went anywhere touristy. Why?

Because during the 3 1/2 years I went to the Academy, the most touristy thing I did was try not to get run over by the cable car.

I did set quite a few scenes in Union Square though. I was very familiar with it by the time I graduated, because I had to cut through it nearly every day to get to my bus.

There were also several other locations in the city that I chose to set prominent scenes. Not because they were iconic places, but because I had been there enough times to know them. The unique color of the lighting. The way they smell. The way your footfalls sound against the ground. The intimate way you know your own home.

5) I’m afraid. Are you?

Until 2021 I suffered from severe debilitating needle phobia. So severe in fact, that even seeing a needle on TV could trigger a panic attack.

It started when I was 17 with just a mild aversion. But it continued until the prospect of getting an injection triggered my fight and flight at the same time. So in 2019 I decided to enter Stanford’s behavioral therapy program.

However, back when I wrote my Marked Ones Trilogy I was still uncured and I used that overwhelming fear of needles for my character Patrick. A lot of the reactions he has are ones I would have had in the exact same situation.

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I hope these examples give you plenty of ideas for using what you know for your current or next story, Reader. And if not, next week I’ll have 5 ways you can use what you know in your stories.

Well until next time, Reader, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat wishing you a wonderfully creative week.

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Your cohort in storytelling,

Kat Vancil

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PS 👉 Starting next week (July 2nd) The Storyteller’s Saga will be moving to its new day—Tuesdays.

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Semi-Rad Brendan Leonard Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week. Subscribe​

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