aquestionofcharacter:

“Write what you know” is great advice, you just can’t take it literally.

Literally writing what you know, and only what you know, is terrible advice. If everyone followed the literal “write what you know,” we wouldn’t have Harry Potter, because JK Rowling is not a wizard. We wouldn’t have Hamlet, because Shakespeare was not a prince. I know most of y’all hate Twilight, but it’s still culturally relevant, and we’d never have that either because I’m pretty sure Stephanie Meyer never made out with a vampire. If everyone followed “write what you know” literally, all we’d ever have is autobiographies.

But all stories are, at their core, a celebration of the human experience. And writing what you know means tapping into the human experiences that you’ve had and turning them into stories.

When you write a story about The Chosen One saving in the world, what you’re actually writing about is the pressure of having people count on you. When you write a story about a human falling in love with a fairy queen, what you are really writing about is about how it feels to love someone different from you. When you write about a detective investigating a murder, what you’re really writing about is the challenge of piecing together a puzzle, and the desire to see justice in the world.

All stories boil down to the same things. What is it to love, to hate, to be angry, to be happy, to be hopeful, to be in despair? What is it to be human? “Write what you know” means take what you’ve experienced – take the problems you’ve faced, take the triumphs you’ve made, take the emotions you’ve felt, and connect with other people who have felt those things, too. Teach other people how to cope with the things happening to them. Help people celebrate their successes, their friendships, and their wonder at the world.

So yes, write what you know! And write what you feel. Write where you’ve been and what you’ve seen. And if it so happens that while you do that you also write about aliens even though you’re human, or the future even though you live in the present, or rockstars even though you’re an accountant, you are still writing what you know!