More stereotypical characters

[lucia]

I'm having a problem wih my characters recently. I've heard that you're supposed to put what you know and want and all that good stuff into your characters. I really love archery (not because of the hunger games) which is where my problem comes in. I feel like archery has just become an over exaggerated talent with a lot of popular books and movies. I don't know how to put what I know into my characters without being completely stereotypical.

[sapphire]

I've always thought of "write what you know" as more of an emotional thing. It's easier to write about activities and such that you know about already, but only because it requires less research. You can always put in the time to find out about things that you don't know already, but would like to write.
For me, writing what I know involves taking interactions with people that I've had and putting them in a new context - for example, the experience of losing one of my best friends slowly, as we grew apart, I've put into my novel. For a short story last year, I took the childhood tension of having a parent angry at me, and I escalated it to make the main character truly afraid of her father. That kind of thing.

As for the archery thing, it's not necessarily bad to use something that many others are using - that means it will sell better. Agents actually look for that kind of thing. That's why there are so many vampire books out there: Twilight started the trend, and agents and publishers jumped on it because it was making a lot of money. That's not to say that you should emulate Twilight, of course.
It's not good to deliberately write to trends, because they tend to fade and by the time you've finished your book, no one's interested anymore. But don't be afraid to write something just because it's popular at the moment. Chances are, you're doing something differently than the other writers out there, even if you're using similar themes. You bring yourself to everything you write, even if you're not trying to, and no one else can do what you can do.

[lucia]

Thanks, that helps a lot. My problem with the research is that I'm afraid i sound like an ignorant person who looked stuff up on the Internet

[sapphire]

Yeah, for the research to really be effective, you have to do a lot of it... Some authors will do years of research before they start writing about a topic.

I think it helps if you can get involved in the topic you're researching. If you were going to write about a character that spends a lot of time with horses, for example, it would be best to actually go spend time with horses, learn the language and how to ride in the natural setting. Things stick better that way, at least for me, and it would give you the experiences you need for descriptions and such, so you don't have to rely on other peoples' words to give the impression you want your readers to get.
Of course, that's easier to do with plenty of time and money.

[Raphael]

You can also research from other people. That's how i get my best info- well not on the dark stuff. But it can almost begoce your experiance if they tell you enough about it.

[lucia]

I'm somewhat if a kinesthetic learner, so hearing about something doesn't always work if i want to describe it realistically. Research is worth a try, though.