5 Ways to Correctly Portray a Subject You Know Nothing About!

Not many people are in the loop on how best to murder someone, or what being in a coma is like to the person in it and the people around them, and even more people don't have a clue about the reality of running away in the woods. Or, for that matter, even how to write a kissing scene.

Here are ways to change that:

1. Research. It may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people gloss over that and end up writing about something that doesn't make sense because they didn't bother to look it up.
2. Find information right from the source! Need to know how to do an organ transplant for your main character? Talk to your doctor, or better yet, a surgeon. Want to know how to correctly portray a crime scene? Watch the news, read about forensics analysis (it really does help), watch crime shows--believe it or not, crime shows are actually really accurate. Over-dramatized, sometimes, but the main idea is there. Have to make a running away scene seem realistic? Find some woods and try running away in them. I guarantee you, it is not as easy as you might think. In fact, it's almost impossible running in a forest unless you spend your every waking moment doing it.
3. If you really don't know much about a topic you want to incorporate into your novel, don't put it in! If you really need it in there, however, include it, but try to keep it as short as possible. For instance, if you're talking swordplay or just fighting in general, try to keep it down to a few jabs here and there and leave it at that. It might be an easily-won fight, but your readers won't know that you don't have a clue about what you're writing about.
4. Become an experience junkie! Obviously, you can't really experience murdering somebody, or going into a coma, but, for instance, visiting places you use in your book? Great! Also, talk to your family and friends, even your teachers. Guarantee you'll find out what you never knew before.
5. Talk it out. Not only is description crucial to a convincing story line, but also the dialogue is important too. For instance, if you have two characters fighting each other, they're not going to be saying, "Hey, man, how's school going?" Likewise, if two of your characters are at a resort in Florida they're not going to be commenting on a dead body--unless, of course, a dead body shows up in front of the resort.

Go forth and conquer, grasshoppers!

~Your Personal Writing Jedi