Lights. Curtain. Dancers, take your place. Cue music.

This upcoming weekend will be a team effort as the 49th annual dance showcase of the studio I attend comes together.

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 cue. 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 inches of flesh and bone. And praying to everything sacred that you don’t fall on your face.

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.

When it comes to writing, you’re routinely told: “Write what you know.” But that advice can often be too vague to be helpful. So instead…

Here are 5 Real World Examples of how I Used What I Knew in my own stories:

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 learned and experienced from countless rehearsals and stage performances in my Marked Ones Trilogy, my novel Predestined, and a short story I wrote for a Romance anthology. (I’m updating and expanding it into a novella called A Dance of Fallen Stars.)

NOTE: Have you spent your life training in a particular sport, skill, or hobby? You can use that expertise and experience in your stories.

2) I’m afraid. Are you?

Until 2021, I suffered from a 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 or blood draw triggered my fight and flight at the same time. So in 2019, I decided to enter Stanford’s behavioral therapy program. By the time the COVID vaccine came out, I was ready to receive mine. 👍

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 situations.

NOTE: Do you have any extreme fears or phobias? You can translate those feelings to your characters to make them feel more authentic and real to readers.

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 humorous commentary about the art while discussing other events that are currently going on in the plot.

NOTE: Real-world experiences from school, life, or work can make an excellent framework for a scene in a story.

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 a cable car.

However, I did set quite a few scenes in Union Square. 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 stop.

There were plenty of other locations in the city where I also chose to set prominent scenes. Not because they were iconic per se, but because I had been there enough times to know them. To know the unique color of the lighting. The way they smelled. The way your footfalls sound against the ground. Much in the same intimate way you know your own home.

NOTE: If you’re going to set your story in an iconic city you’re not familiar with, DO YOUR RESEARCH! Locals will rip your book apart if you screw up basic things you could have gotten right with 5 mins of googling.

5) Road Trip Research

Every out-of-town wedding or visit to the in-laws can become a research trip for your next story if you plan right. That’s exactly what I did when I traveled to Oregon in August of 2017.

Originally, we were going to see the eclipse and visit my husband’s family. However, the town of McMinnville—about an hour away—became the inspiration for Corbeauvale, the main setting in my novel Predestined.

And various little shops and locations throughout rural Oregon on subsequent trips have inspired settings in my Occultopus short stories that will feature in Walk Me Home.

NOTE: Even small mom-and-pop shops can be found on Google Maps and Yelp nowadays, so you can fill in your research long after you return home from your trip. And don’t forget to check out those free travel brochures they have in the lobby of your hotel.

​
Well, Reader, I hope these examples give you plenty of ideas for using what you know for all your future stories.

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

​

Your cohort in storytelling,

Kat Vancil

🐱

PS 👉 Try this writing prompt: Scroll through your photos from a recent trip and select 1. Now set a 500-word scene in that location.

​​​​​​

​

Jeffrey Ricker's Telling Stories I'm a writer of LGBTQ+ young adult and speculative fiction. In my newsletter I talk about my work, the creative process, and what I'm reading and enjoying. Subscribe​

Hello there, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat, letting you know that I earn a small affiliate commission from purchases of books and other products mentioned in these emails. If I received a free or promotional item for review, it will be noted in the email per regulations.

Not interested in learning to be a storyteller? Just want to get news on my upcoming stories and read some heart-pounding Boys Love fiction instead? Abandon this quest​

Do you need/want to change your name or email? You can update it here​

Don't want to hear from me like ever again? Just Unsubscribe​

The Saga Quest

1179 West A Street, Suite 137, Hayward, CA 94541