GYDO: Jessica Khoury

Jessica Khoury, Author of Origin (2012)

Write What You Know… Or Should You?
It’s one of the most repeated bits of writing advice: write what you know. I don’t know where I first heard it, but I’m sure it was in an English class in school. And no doubt this advice is sound—when you’re talking to a room filled with students (most of whom would likely rather lick a hydrant in January than write a creative essay). But when you’re writing a novel, is what you know really enough? After all, how many of us are sword-slinging exiled princes or fallen angels or astronauts or rebel leaders? In light of the stories on shelves today, well, what we know seems kind of… boring.

If I wrote what I knew, then Origin would be the story of a small-town girl who likes soccer and theater and books too much, and cleaning and cooking too little. She’d go to school, hike through the woods, go on the occasional vacation to the same crowded, oily beach where everyone else goes… Are you yawning yet?

Even if I stretched what I know a bit to include my virtual experiences, I’d still be limited by the books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, stories I’ve heard. Granted, I can’t write without drawing on all these things, but do we really want to be limited by our experiences when we write? What about imagination?

But there’s another side to what you know. What you know is safe. You know it. You can describe it. You’re confident about it. It’s a comfort zone. You’ve lived all your life in the suburbs of Chicago, so why not set your story there? After all, you can describe every street corner and gas station and tree and block of pavement. That kind of detail and familiarity will only bring your story to life, right? Well, sure. And writing about what you know is totally okay. You can definitely tell a fantastic story by keeping it safely within your realm of personal experience.

But there are some stories which will draw you out.

This is what happened for me with Origin. When I began the book, I knew pretty much nothing about the Amazon rainforest. I’d never been in any rainforest of any kind. Sure, I’d spent hours playing Amazon Trail in computer lab during fourth grade (any other Amazon Trailblazers out there? *virtual fist bump*) But that was the extent of my experience with the Amazon. That was all I knew. Granted, that 10$ computer game was surprisingly helpful when it came to writing Origin, but there was so much more I needed to know.

I spent at least two hours researching for every hour I spent writing Origin. And it was so totally worth it.

Breaking out of what I knew was the most rewarding, terrifying, and exciting thing I’d ever done as a writer. Until I wrote Origin, my writing/reading life was largely composed of high fantasy. Sure, I’d never actually faced a dragon or led a rebellion of elves, but I knew how to write about it. I knew what was supposed to happen in a fantasy world, and what was expected, and how long it takes to cross 100 miles of forested terrain on horseback while packing so many pounds of food on this many rations a day during a wizard-induced rainstorm. High fantasy was familiar and safe for me. Which was exactly why I had to bust outta there.

By throwing myself into an entirely strange new world of anacondas and kapoks and hidden jungle tribes, I had to reform myself as a writer. Everything I’d been able to cling to in the past, all those comfy fantasy tropes, were stripped away. I had to swim on my own for the first time. I had to figure out how to cross this foreign sea with only my Google and Wikipedia skills to keep me afloat. And you guys. I learned so much. About myself as a writer. About the Amazon. About what this whole book-writing-story-telling thing is about.

Have you been stuck in a comfort zone for too long? Have you clung to old tropes and safety lines and easy fallbacks for too many years? When was the last time you dared yourself to leap into unknown territory? If so, then here is my challenge to you: Don’t write what you know.

Write what terrifies you.

What stretches you.
What excites you.
What redefines you.
What bewilders you.

Even if it’s just for a time, and you end up returning to that old safety zone, at least you’ll have changed, grown, and learned. Shed the floaties and grow some new muscles—swim in an impossible sea. You might be surprised at how far you’ll get.

Origin Blurb
Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home--and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.
Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin--a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Author Bio
Jessica Khoury is of Syrian and Scottish descent, and was born and raised in Toccoa, Georgia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Toccoa Falls College. Origin is her first novel. She still lives in Toccoa with her husband Ben, where she writes and coaches youth soccer.

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