“Write what you know” is a common piece of advice you’ll find in any writing guide. It implies that writing about things, events, places familiar to you will give you an (almost) endless supply of material for writing. So, you should mine your life, your family, your acquaintances, career, education and hobbies for potential ideas. There are plenty - you just need to look.
“Write what you want to know”, on the other hand, invites you to find answers to questions that intrigue you. If you are a parent worrying about your child’s health, education or upbringing, talk to experts and figure out solutions that you as a parent can use. Then (and this is the icing on the cake), write about what you have found and help other parents solve the same problem. You can use that approach to any area of your life. Whether you want solutions for your home, business, marriage or travel, ask those experts. Get paid to find answers to questions important to you; how cool is that?
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Kristi Holl // Mar 12, 2008 at 1:42 am
I think both ways of finding ideas are equally valid, and nearly every novel I’ve written has used both. Even when your novel is based loosely on something that happened to you, there are always things to find out: facts about the actual setting, details about the career your main character’s dad has, characteristics of the breed of dog your villain owns, etc. It’s fun to write things that require a combination of the two methods.
2 Chris R // Mar 12, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I’ve used both methods too. The advantage of writing what you know is that you have intimate knowledge of the day-to-day, the kind of stuff that isn’t in books, the kind of thing only someone involved in a particular field would know from being in it.
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