Can you Write About what you have not Experienced?
How to Apply Wisdom in your Writing, How to Gain Experiences in Life
“In all thy getting, get wisdom”!
“Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgement” — Oxford dictionary
In the Chinese drama joy of life, Fan Xian is a young man from the 21st century who has transmigrated into Ancient China.
He is privileged to have retained all his memories and knowledge of the modern world. And having that advantage, he dazzles in the ancient world.
He uses the knowledge of those poems written by sages and renowned Chinese philosophers to gain a reputation as a God poet in his present life.
The question initially posed by his critics in the movie, is — how can a young man have such sentiments in his poetry when he has not lived long enough to experience what is captured?
I read the book before watching the movie, so I know that while he had died as a young man in his previous life, he had been a sickly one, not being able to experience life as his peers, and so he immersed himself in those literary works.
The second key is that, he is a transmigrator, the experience of being a transmigrator is not one that any of his critics could have lived up to. And so all of these unique experiences make up for the span of years that he may not have lived.
One’s breadth of experiences cannot be defined by the number of years that they have lived. Living long is good, but a young man who applies wisdom to his life can influence much more people than an older person would.
So the answer to question posed above, is in fact, Yes! You can write about what you have not experienced, but to what depth would you able to educate or convince others?.
Why is Experience Important?
Experience gives you perspective. Experience brings understanding. Nobody is born wise.
We gain wisdom by knowing, by experiencing, by understanding, by living it out.
And it shows in our writing. Any topic at all that you write about, it is not enough to know about it, it’s often not enough to have researched.
It is more convincing when you have had personal experience, that is something that no one can take away from you. That is knowledge that you can defend and stand upon wherever you find yourself.
The richer the Experience the Deeper the Connection
Someone with a medical background can write about medicine and do well. Still, she/he can only write to the extent that they know or have researched.
This is why personal stories sell, someone who has only researched about a topic and one who has experienced it personally will capture their message in very different ways. And one would be more convincing than the other.
It all boils down to one thing, connection. Your experience determines the depth to which you can write, the depth to which you can write determines how much you can connect with the reader and of course, this depends on the reader’s experiences as well. To be able to influence others with your writing, you need to be able to connect.
The essence of writing is to connect. How much would your writing matter if people could not relate to what you have written?
If readers can’t connect, they wont laugh or smile, they couldn’t be convinced either.
There are myriad of ways to gain unique experiences that people can never predict from just your writing.
How to Gain Experiences in Life
I’m able to write the first part of this article, because I had watched a Chinese movie. That movie may have taken a few hours of my time, but it is the evidence of months and years of hard work put in by another creator. Although I glimpsed only a little, there is a lot to be learnt from that movie.
So here’s some advice on gaining experiences in Life:
1. Read:
One of the recurring advice given by writers to writers is to read. Read fiction, non fiction, magazines, newsletters, interviews. Read long form and short form pieces.
There is so much content to be consumed nowadays that this advice might seem a tad too generalized. So it now falls to you, to learn to sieve through what you read.
Read what interests you, stick to the style that captivates you. Pick up a classic every once in a while. Classics are labelled so because at a point in time, they had captured the heartbeat of man. You could gain a thing or two from them.
2. Watch:
Movies, series, documentaries, watch across industries, holly wood, the Asian film industry, African and European cinematography.
This is important, because no one can tell their own story better than themselves. If you want to learn about Cleopatra, better watch it from the Egyptian perspective, if you want to learn about Chinese nationalism, hear the stories by the Chinese people.
Of course everyone has their motive when telling these stories, it’s left to you to decipher the unspoken meaning.
Two film recommendations: I Am Not Madam Bovary(2016) directed by Xiaogang Feng. My dad also made me watch Scent of Woman starring Al Pacino many years back. You’d love them.
3. Travel:
Ever been on a boat trip? taken a train ride?
One thing I love about road trips in public buses is the conversations you hear from fellow passengers. You can learn a lot about one’s mentality and way of reasoning just from listening in the background.
You can experience a lot of things through the senses of others, through their drawing, their music, their food, their drinks, their dancing.
I swear travelling and getting exposure to other peoples and countries is the sweetest you could for your self and your loved ones.
It helps to do away with many idiosyncrasies or biases that we could hold against others. Sometimes having had the experience of being a foreigner in another nation a could also help you to be kinder to the foreigners in yours.
Opening yourself to others also opens up possibilities and pathways to explore farther.
Science shows that new experiences open up pathways in the brain and strengthens them. The more exposure you get, the more you put your brain to work.
4. Dare to Do!
Attend that wedding! Book that trip, Go for that colleague’s party! Don’t go for that colleague’s party. get started on that book.
With regards to experiences you also need to plan it. If you do not plan your life, life will make plans for you.
It is very important to be intentional about your life both in the short term and long term. A short term plan could mean going to the movies or to the town park/zoo. A long term plan could mean travelling to a neighboring country.
Experiences wont just land on your door step, you need to plan for them.
5. Write
Wooohoo, I cannot over emphasize this.
The You of today will not be the same person ten years from now.
Writing is necessary documentation of your history and your evolution. This is personal!
You must first grow as a writer before your can prompt others to grow.
The more you write, the better you get at writing, the better you get at focusing, the better you get at communicating, at connecting and networking, tat marketing. All these are necessary to make a successful writer, but first you need to write.
The more you write the more you gain knowledge, experiences, and understanding. The more you write, the wiser you become.
In Conclusion
Remember this when writing, deep calls out to deep. You can’t capture what you do not understand.
Often times we start an article, then we realize that we have only scratched the surface, should that stop you from publishing?
No. But you should remind yourself that there is a lot more and for the sake of your readers, work towards improving on yourself and the depth of your writing.
While there are so many stories and experiences that have been narrated over the centuries, there are so many more that are yet to see the light of day.
Life is such a beautiful conundrum, that you should never disregard a single experience.
Hi, I’m Nguper. I write about relationships, life lessons, poetry and health issues. To see my stories in your feed, I’d love for you to follow me (Terngu)
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