"Writing what you know" in the age of cultural appropriation | Writer Questions #8

So I'm writing a book. This book is about Japanese people. It's a fictional book.

I chose Japan as the setting because I thought it was different from my native USA. I read once that so many novels take place in the Anglophone world, it's boring. And I thought it would be interesting to explore Japan for a few other reasons that I won't go into here, but you can ask me if you like through PM.

Anyway, I don't want to misrepresent Japan. I only know what little I've read about, and of course what they allow you to see through anime.

I know from "educating" myself that anybody from any culture can be spunky and fiery. But it's hard to believe when you've never experienced that culture for yourself and can't vouch for the types of spunkiness allowed. Is it spunkiness filtered through misogyny? What sort?
I want my one of my characters to be curious about Western things, but be ultimately patriotic and pro-Japan. I want another to be completely into Western things and English, educating his older friends on how America and other Anglophone countries work. (He's always chatting online to learn English, and reading books -- he's a self-learner.) I want another to be just in it for the music. He likes American rock and understands the important language from that, but other than that wants nothing to do with English.

I just don't want to come across as dictating how Japanese should deal with English, because I'm not Japanese, and worse, I'm a native English speaker.

And I want my characters to be sarcastic and jaded, but reading everything available to English speakers online about Japan, it doesn't seem that Japanese people are allowed to be any of these things. They just follow rules and are little polite robots. I know this can't be true, but I can't prove its falseness.

If you were writing a story that was a bit out of your wheelhouse, how would you do it? Would you just give up writing something you didn't know, or persevere?

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Dear Writer,

"Writing what you know" isn't about only writing on things you understand. What writers typically mean when they repeat this phrase is, "Follow your passions in writing." When a writer writes passionately, there is an evident vibrancy to the writing that can't be fabricated.

It seems, based on your question, that what you're really asking about is (1) research and (2) fairly representing a real-life culture you're experientially unfamiliar with, i.e., one you don't "know."
I think you're correct to seek understanding. Robert McKee (Story, 68-70) says that one of the sources of cliche is a writer's unfamiliarity with their story world. Unfamiliarity causes a writer to turn to "what they know" in the negative sense—phrases we've read before, characters we've met before; imitation in the worst possible way. Every trope, of course, has been done by now, but the writer's goal should be to weave a story that can be felt uniquely.

There is no shortcut when it comes to understanding real cultures and accurately representing them in prose. I commend to you the book The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard E. Nisbett. One of the main theses of the book is how communal thinking vs. individualistic thinking differently shapes culture. If you're serious and are able, consider moving to Japan for a semester or doing an exchange program. There are also copious analyses of Japanese games, shows, literature, etc., by Westerners. Check out this one out.

You must have a level of familiarity with this other culture that is suited to writing your story—nothing more, nothing less. As many late-night TV segments where people are asked basic questions on the street evidence, many Americans can't explain how or why certain historical events took place, or where a mindset or ideal came from, yet they live here and get on fine. It's hard for a fish to realize it swims in a bowl, regardless of said fish's nationality, and it's easy for a writer, having done copious research, to drop an elevated level of knowledge into their characters when this very likely doesn't reflect how most regular people live.

Books are "boring" for a variety of reasons depending on the reader, though there are guiding principles most stories adhere to; most people know something's "off" in a bad movie, though they can't explain why. Anglophone stories being overdone in a culture where English is the primary language is something which can only be said from a luxury of excess; places where Anglophone stories are not part of the cultural zeitgeist likely don't suffer from this perceived malaise, and vice versa. It's something literary professionals say these days because (1) They read thousands of queries per year and can easily spot patterns; (2) They're catering to where they think the money is flowing.
If you are just starting out, my advice is not to concern yourself with what literary professionals insist is really hot right now. In all likelihood, by the time you develop the skill to write something that is actually publishable, the trend will have shifted. Write whatever you want whether or not other people might think it's boring, though it seems like you are doing just that by pursuing this Japanese-influenced story.

Best,

DR-M