Because of the mass communication tools and features we have in the current era of our world, it is much easier to learn about things globally. Whether they are completely true or not.
Having thoughts about things is easier than we thought it would be nowadays. And I’m sure you’ve noticed that almost no one says “I don’t know much about it” anymore. Everyone has some kind of information or idea about some things.
It makes some people delusional, thinking they know better or more than anyone else. In fact, I always laugh when they think they know more than me about what is going on around me or where I live.
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That was all about facts. But there is also a fictional side. When you have no idea, you tell things with what you think you know, which makes them a fiction. You can’t give anything real or tangible if you don’t know what you’re talking about. And as I said, because the ways of communicating are common, no one cares whether a piece of information reflects the truth about things or not. They just say it.
Now let’s look at the literary side. If you use only the facts at hand to write your stories, they may not have much soul, unless you know how to use literary devices well. A story may have characters based on real life. But I assure you, the imagination will still be there in your words and descriptions. It will be there, one way or another. Maybe not all of it, but some of it. Fiction is largely a work of the imagination. You will have to fictionalise most of the elements in your novel. You don’t have to base everything on real life.
But what if you want to write about a place you’ve never been, but not a completely fictional place like paradise or an alien planet? Say you want to write about a city you’d like to visit one day, but haven’t yet. Can you really do that? Would we be contradicting with our words at the beginning of the article?
The answer to the question of whether we can write about places we haven’t visited is a resounding yes. We absolutely can. But we need more than imagination, no matter how fictional the narrative or description would be. We need to be prepared to write about a place that already exists, (perhaps a research of the place or direct thoughts of the residents), so that it becomes part of reality. Of course, it would make a difference if we were to add another element as a catalyst, such as describing the same place in the future. That would indeed require more adaptation of the narrative.
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It sounds strange at first to be able to write about places you have never visited. “How can I write about Japan?” Well, again, you’ll need both your imagination and the facts you have in your pocket. You can keep your descriptions general, reflecting some basic views from there, and that would not bat an eye. But when you get into the details, you need some clear information. You can’t just guess what the structures of the shrines are like, but you can write what it would feel like to have been there.
So, as we can see, if the descriptions are mostly abstract rather than real, it is easier to guess with your limited knowledge of places. In my opinion, however, only skilful writers would push the boundaries to make them work both ways.
I am not talking about that Tolkien wrote about Middle-earth without having been there. I mean that James Joyce wrote about Dublin from Paris. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his famous Sherlock Holmes stories, and he described London in great detail, although he did not live there. In “The Great Gatsby”, Fitzgerald vividly described the north shore of Long Island, even though he wrote the novel while living in Europe.
I firmly believe that if you can do that well, it shows that you have made a breakthrough in your career as a real writer.
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