Write What You Know?

When I was younger, and more of a fantasy writer, I used to hate--and I really mean hate--those people who said, "Write what you know." In my adolescent peevishness, I thought a lot of unkind thoughts toward those early teachers, those early naysayers. I was busy creating worlds! I was writing about magic and elves and princesses and knights! Every time someone condescendingly said something about fairy stories and "Shouldn't you be writing what you know, sweetie?" I wanted to pitch a fit, complete with stamping feet and hands balled into fists.

Years later, what I've learned is this: those people who blindly spout "Write what you know" like a mantra? Those people who mean "Write about your own life and only your own life"? They don't really understand writing. They don't understand creation. They don't understand storytelling. If you're a fantasy writer and you're creating a world with its own set of rules and races and laws of physics, well... you could make a case that you know the ins and outs of that world, couldn't you? I mean, it's entirely possible you're the only creature in the world who knows that imaginary world well enough to write the stories happening in it. How's that for responsibility?

More than anything, I have learned that part of the reason I am drawn to writing is, as a writer, you are forced to learn constantly. You have a character who is a nurse? A history professor? An editor? A musician? A princess? A wizard? All of a sudden you, as the the writer and creator, need to know about walking a mile in the shoes of a nurse/history professor/editor/musician/princess/wizard. I don't think writers only tell stories about their own lives. I think the magic of being a writer is knowing with enough spit and polish and research and imagination, any person's story can be told.

If writers only wrote what they knew, there would be a hell of a lot more stories about, well, writers, wouldn't there? And I think everyone would get mighty bored of writers writing about sitting at their desks or in cafes, writing about writers writing.