Knowing Too Much

As a young writer, I spend a lot of time worrying about all the things I don't know. I'm constantly reading to learn, and lamenting all the subjects on which I know very little. For example, I only speak one language fluently. I can read French and Spanish as long as I have a dictionary at hand, but I could not dream of writing in either of those languages. I have virtually no education in the classics in Greek or Latin. I've only read a few of Shakespeare's plays, and forgotten most of what I read. I've read the Bible, but only in the NIV, which I've learned is the least beautiful, least accurate, most heretical, least reliable, version of the Bible going. I once had an opportunity to study Greek and Hebrew through Sunday School, but I didn't stick with either of these. I lost my Bible software a long time ago, and I'm pretty sure it was illegal anyways. Can you imagine, pirated Bible software?! Of all the things to pirate!

I know how to play practically no musical instruments, and reading music for me is like doing a crossword puzzle. Heck, I didn't even learn how to read a clock properly until just this past year (I had relied on digital displays my entire life until I forced myself to get rid of all of them in my house). I still have trouble with my right and left. I've forgotten most of what I ever knew of songs on the piano, the orchestra bells, and the xylophone. I never did learn how to properly tune the timpani drums. Luckily, I can still remember most of what I learned on the snare drum, but I seem to have lost what little sense of rhythm I ever had. I can't remember the few chords I learned on the guitar, and I can't remember what the strings are: E - A - D - ? - E.

I know virtually nothing about law or medicine, and even if I did, I can't see how either of these things would serve me in the real world, since I don't have any job prospects that would see me using any of this knowledge. I don't know the geography of my own province beyond the basics. I don't know the names of all our representatives at all our levels of government. I don't know much about military strategy, except what I might have picked up playing chess or Dungeons & Dragons, which I doubt is useful in the real world.

I don't know how most of the things in my house are made, or how to repair them. I willfully know nothing about cars, and less willfully almost nothing about bicycles. I still don't know how to make a samosa, even though I've been meaning to teach myself for years.

I can't defend myself in a fight, because I know nothing about martial arts.

Anyways, you can see how I agonize, but the next problem for a writer comes from knowing too much, or from over-researching. I mean, not all characters know everything, and a lot of people just make up answers for things they don't know. It's all well and good for a writer to strive for perfect accuracy in all things, but the more realistic approach would be to somehow get in the head of your character and think like they do, flaws and all. This is a major part of what makes us each unique. We all have our deficiencies, and often we aren't even aware of the places in our knowledge where we're plainly wrong.

It's fair enough for me to agonize over how they do things in a certain area of the world, or a certain era of history, but sometimes I have to realize that just because people are located in the same place, time, and even social class and gender, doesn't mean that they all think alike and believe the same things about the universe. And not just the universe, though that can be important too, but just the expectations that characters place on the way the real world reacts to actions taken upon it. Is a person healthier if they take lots of baths, or if they let a protective layer of dirt accumulate? Is a shaven head a sign of boldness or humility?