Writing the Unfamiliar.

FACT!: There is a popular phrase that goes "Write what you know." Any writer will encounter it in their career. It's an utterly loathsome phrase in the industry that, as many bilinguals will tell you, actually translates to "Nah, nah, nah nah nah nah" in certain cultures.

A writer walks into a frozen yogurt place and tells the cashier while they are picking out only red sprinkles shaped like dinosaurs to go on half a pina colada and half a New York cheesecake fat free, that they intend to write a book set in Ireland about serial killers and a magic rabbit. The cashier says "Oh. Have you been to Ireland?" because they're old and don't know that cashiers at frozen yogurt places haven't engaged in meaningful conversation with their consumers since '18. The writer says "No. Never." The cashier asks "What about serial killers?" "I met a Canadian once," says the writer. "And magic rabbits?" "My friend housetrained his."

This scenario would immediately illicit a "Write what you know" response, but this presents a problem, because then the writer wouldn't be writing a great tale of Ireland, serial killers, and magic rabbits, they would be writing a mediocre tale about Nome, Canadians, and a house bunny that was actually a bunny living in a house. This might impress a few high school English teachers so long as the Canadians became a metaphor for our own caged souls, but in the soft fantasy market this won't go far.

The problem may be solved by actually journeying to Ireland to go hunting rabbits and then to visit a penitentiary. This will make your writing much more real, though it will also let a serial killer know you are alive, which is rarely a good idea. 

The problem may also be solved by reading extensively on the subject. This is second hand, but for genre fiction it can work very well.

The easiest way, however, is to make it into something that you know through excessive exaggeration.

For example: I may not know a serial killer, but I know people who get a sadistic pleasure out of going to the front of lines despite belonging in the back, thereby murdering the person behind them's chance at going on California Adventures before it closes.

By exaggerating emotions and blowing things out of context, one finds that they've experienced pretty much everything first hand when they really think about it.

THE CHALLENGE!: In 300 words write about something you've never seen happening in a place you've never been.