Anyone who has ever written anything has received the advice of writing what you know. Every time I hear it, my balloon deflates.
It makes me wonder why this became advisable. Are there so many writers attempting to convince us of expertise they do not have? Is it meant to promote research? If so, the advice should be, “Don’t write until you know.”
Or are we all supposed to be writing based on our personal lives and lifestyles, never straying too far from our familiar geography or socioeconomic circles? It will feel real because it is real. Because we have lived it, we can write with confidence.
I have some bones to pick with this thought.
One, what I know is too either too disturbing or too boring for fiction. Three people in my life have advised me to write about teaching. As a believer in the law of attraction, I would never consider giving more energy to a subject I do not want increased in my life. On a more practical level, I love my protagonists too much to force them into such a heinous career and I love all fictional children enough not to put my antagonist in a school.
Even the thought of coming home from a day of teaching to write about someone who teaches is enough to make me never write again.
My social stratification is now universally boring. While searching for publishers for short stories, the call is obvious–readers want diversity. As a writer, I want to write diversely. This requires writing what I do not know firsthand. I want heroes that aren’t handsome men, lovers who reject traditional roles, and children who question the concept of “normal”. Should I be relegated to my own race, gender, or belief system when writing fiction?
Human beings with a reasonable amount of self-awareness and self-knowledge should be able to empathize with any other human being in any situation. All it takes is some research and imagination. I support adding an astrophysicist to your novel if you majored in music. Throw in a family from the isolated Toromona tribe in Bolivia. Whatever is human, you can access it. And if you’re not writing about humans, what human can argue with your assumptions?
I suggest we revise the advice. Don’t write what you know. Write what you want to read. Research what you want to know and imagine the rest.
