Researching Your Writing

"Write what you know."

I thought this was an interesting bit of wisdom in the writing community. "Write what you know." Think about it for a bit.

I understand the thinking. How can you write about life in a jail if you haven't been in jail? How can you relate to a person who has had bariatric surgery without being a bariatric patient?

At the same time, I think this would make for some boring stories, too. Does this mean that a male writer can't have a female protagonist (or what does it mean if he does and does it well)? What about science fiction, where I really doubt that most writers of sci fi have actually been on a starship?

I bring this up because my story's "new ending" had taken a turn for a real-life town that I haven't been to. I've been to the state it's in, but not that specific town (that's like comparing a backwoods home in the mountains of New York to downtown...New York, I suppose). I can relate only to some aspects of the area in that I've experienced the climate and some of the differences someone from the northeastern states feels in a wildly different part of the country...put it that way.

But that means that I'm incorporating details that are real without ever being there. I've been trying to get as much as I can through researching the towns. Fortunately I live in the age of the Internet; there are videos of the town online, Google Earth helps me with directions and lay of the land, and there are some pictures and images through Google Image search. It's really helped with details of things like mileage, road descriptions, and even the description of a parking lot.

I still can't help but wish that I could actually visit the site and incorporate those experiences into the story. But then again, leaving it somewhat vague keeps from bogging readers down in details that are unnecessary.

The only other solution would be to make up details and create my own places much like Springfield for the Simpsons or Silent Hill being based on Centralia, PA. I don't like that as much. Speaking as someone who went to visit Centralia after finding out some of the background of Silent Hill, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, despite finding just about nothing there if for no other reason than enjoying the, "I was there!" experience when I see it in the news or on TV. There's an almost visceral connection to a place like that, a place that you hear about or interact with virtually then experience in real life. It's similar to the thrill of participating in discussions and interacting with your favorite podcast hosts, making them more real and you feel less disconnected when they say your name and know that this faceless voice is speaking to you.

That's part of the reason I incorporated this particular location into the story. Even if it never sells, never gets published, I know that if I wanted to (if this is the ending I actually keep, that is) I could go visit these places. I could interact with them, and know that out there this place exists, hopefully as I describe them.

Does anyone else out there write like this? Or do I have the wrong idea, and should I just stick to those things that I have more direct experience with?