Write what you know.

[dameboudicca]

You know, that advise you get all the time. It has some truth to it (especially if not taken to literally).

But what do you do if you suffer from prosopagnosia (facial blindness), when you couldn't describe the face of someone you knew if your life depended on it even? If you are incapable of reading facial expressions (at least, if they are not really exaggerated). Does that mean you have to write stories about faceless beings who never shows the slightest hint of an expression on their faces? It would be all right if your character had the same condition, but if you don't want that...?

This is not just a question out of idle curiosity, I have these problems, and so far I have avoided it by using generic descriptions (put together from stuff I've read), but it feels a bit like cheating (no, no, not word-by-word, of course not - but still!) - and I'm terrified someone will, eventually, see through it. After all, I know it's fake!

Or, do I have no choice but to continue as I do now?

[somewhat cross-posted]

Comments

[cesy]

If it helps, "write what you know" is good up to a point, but it has big caveats. For instance, most people only know what it's like to be one gender. Does that mean you should never write characters of different gender? Of course not - you read about people of that gender, talk to them, find out what the differences are (and what is just urban myths or stereotypes), remember how many things about being a person are just the same and how much you still have in common with the character, and then write them as well as you can, and get feedback from beta-readers of that gender if possible.

I'd say that principle works for a lot of other things as well - both things like race, disability, sexuality, etc. (though you have to be more careful with those) and also things like career, hobbies, personality traits, etc.

So I think you're doing the right thing in putting descriptions together from what you've read, and the best thing is to continue like that, and also ask a beta reader without prosopagnosia to give you feedback occasionally on how you describe facial expressions.

[dameboudicca]

I agree with your notion of 'write what you know' - perhaps a better way of putting it would be 'write what you understand'. It can be really fun to try to understand something different from yourself. But there is a limit, when you really CAN'T understand, when someone tells you something and it's just words. Understanding faces falls into that category - it's like advanced algebra, and I wouldn't write about that either...

But I will ask my readers to keep an eye on my descriptions to make sure they sound truthful - and not like anything copy+pasted from someone else's text! :)