Is it possible to write a story about a person with cancer if you have never experienced it?
I exist on Yahoo Answers in the cancer category because my wife had breast cancer so I help out there. A teenager posted a question that they wanted to write a story about a teenage boy that has cancer and wanted us to relate to our cancer experience so she could write a believable story. Is it possible to write about having a disease like cancer without having it?
i think it is possible with enough research and interviews on the topic. it’s just easier when you’ve experienced it i guess.
It’s possible, definitely.
It’s possible to write about anything as long as you get the facts and information right.
Personal testimonies of people who have experienced it would be a phenomenal advantage.
People often write stories about people with diseases or illnesses, etc. they haven’t experienced.
Hey Dave, hope you guys are doing good this new year. First, well and really last, there’s so many of these supposed people on here writing stories, books, acting in a play, movie, etc that want to know about cancer. I think they are all teens and it’s basically a homework assignment in disguise. I don’t answer with details, but with the reply I just gave you. They seem to be as believable as the kids saying they only have 6 months to live.
Of course it is possible, if you do enough research and read enough of the Chicken Soup for the Soul stories, you can get the facts right and the feelings true. It may be a challenge though.
That type of question comes up a lot in the Cancer section, and like April I don’t tend to answer them.
They always come from young teenagers, too.
But to answer the question – yes, it’s possible, but in my experience rarely successful. Most authors write about many things they haven’t experienced, with varying degrees of success. But cancer is one of those subjects most people assume they already know a bit about, even if they have no experience of it. I have yet to read a book which includes a character with cancer whose author seems to have done sufficient research, either about the disease or its treatments.
Currently I’m reading a novel one of whose characters ‘beat’ colon cancer a year earlier; she is still completely bald as a result of her cancer. The expectation appears to be that she will always be bald; she mourns the loss of her hair.
The same goes for TV shows and films; I rarely see one that includes a ‘cancer character’ that doesn’t make me squirm with embarrassment or seethe with anger or frustration. Oddly, that usually includes medical dramas; The UK’s most popular medical drama, Holby City, had a major character going through breast cancer a few years ago. They presumably have a raft of medical advisers, and they have an actor in the cast who had gone through breast cancer herself a couple of years earlier. But if there was a prize for most inaccurate representation of breast cancer and its treatment, they would have won hands down.
Yes it can be done; there’d be no novels if people couldn’t write about things that they hadn’t experienced personally. But in the case of cancer, at least, research often appears to have been been shoddy or nonexistent
I think it depends.
I suspect that _you_ could write believably about cancer, because you’ve been close to someone with it. A teen who thinks they can get enough info by posting on Yahoo Answers? No way.
I do think “write what you know” matters when the consequences of getting it wrong are trivialising something so serious and which is life-changing for so many people. I wouldn’t even try.
I’m not surprised, though. Teens do often think that the way to write a book which catches people’s attention is to pick a huge, powerful subject and try to piggyback off the emotions people already have for the subject.
Good point Dave – and an excellent question.
This question made me think of counselors in rehab centers.
The ones who are recovering alcoholics or addicts know what they are talking about,
but they are still sick – - since they say addictions are never “cured. ”
Counselors who have not been addicts or alcoholics cannot really understand the disease, so how can they be effective counselors? Catch 22 ?
- – -
I wonder if I should answer cancer questions on this site
since I have never had a cancer.
Of course I think I can since I was a cancer specialist doctor for 20 years.
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I have written half a dozen published articles about warfare in history,
but I have never been a soldier.
Heck, I have never tried to hit or hurt anyone in my 57 years.
- – -
Tricky stuff !
I think you could write a story about cancer since you have been there with your wife.
Yes, it is possible if a person does the research and has empathy.
WOW Great answers above – especially “lo_mcg. ”
I have had three college writing courses in recent years.
The dictum is indeed – “write what you know. ”
But Socrates was wise because “He knew that he did not know. ”
No one can know who has not actually been the patient.
The fear. The side effects. The uncertainties.
I have tried to put myself in those shoes.
Only your wife and people like lo-mcg understand.
Well, in some cases yeah. Someone who has known someone else who has had and has been very close to them might be able to, although I think they’d write better about their own experience. I guess if a person conducts a lot of research they would get the factual points of the story right but would lack the emotional aspects unless they have had it or, if they are gifted with the sense of understanding, if they have known someone who had it.