Don't Just Write What You Know

Be bold, be adventurous

Don’t just write what you know

Mark Twain said, “Write what you know.” Since he first said it, many writers have weighed in with pros and cons, along with their own interpretations of his meaning.

But what does this actually mean

Some writers take the statement literally, suggesting we should only write about things with which we have direct, concrete experience. If we were to subscribe to this interpretation, there would be no fantasy, no science fiction, and the only people who could write about important world events would be those who lived through them.

Others would stretch that definition to allow research as experience, leading to knowledge of a subject. That still leaves out science fiction and fantasy, which spring from imagination and sometimes extrapolation of existing science.

One writing camp interprets Twain’s statement to mean one should write what one emotionally knows. Write about love or anguish or whatever other emotions you have come to intimately know.

I like Ursuala K. Le Guin’s take

As for “Write what you know,” I was regularly told this as a beginner. I think it’s a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets, dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know them better than anybody else possibly could, so it’s my duty to testify about them. I got my knowledge of them, as I got whatever knowledge I have of the hearts and minds of human beings, through imagination working on observation. Like any other novelist. All this rule needs is a good definition of “know.”

So maybe we should write what we know

We just have to properly define what we know. We know our own imaginations. We know our own hearts. We know the genres we love to read. We know what we’ve experienced directly and indirectly, and we know what we’ve researched.

Don’t let the statement, “Write what you know,” stand as a barrier to writing. Don’t let it define what you allow yourself to write. Authors are often expected to write within a single genre. We’re supposed to stick to what we know.

I can’t think of more stifling advice. We know more than a single genre. Our palette is made up of so many colors, of so much of life and imagination. Rather than limiting ourselves, we need to be bold, to experiment. We need to learn what we know by challenging ourselves to find out through our writing.

Many famous writers have chosen to do just this. They have refused to stick to what they “know,” as defined by traditional industry expectation. Some write under pseudonyms when they step outside the genre in which they have become well known. Others don’t.

J.K. Rowling’s first book after the Harry Potter series, The Casual Vacancy, was written under her own name. She attempted to hide behind the name Robert Galbraith when she published the first of her Cormoran Strike crime fiction series. She was quickly found out and even though they’re still published under the pseudonym, everyone knows they’re hers.

Stephen King, in addition to the horror novels for which he is so well known, also writes science fiction and fantasy under his own name. Titles such as The Dark Tower series, and The Green Mile have done very well.

Robin Hobb, famous for many trilogies in her Liveship universe, writes all of her work under pseuodnyms. The name Robin Hobb was not even the first. She initially wrote fantasy under the name Megan Lindholm. Although both “authors” write fantasy, their styles are completely different.

Write what you love

I think the best advice, rather than using the oft debated phrase, “Write what you know,” is to write what you love. If you love both science fiction and historical fiction, write both. Write fiction and non-fiction if you feel drawn to them. 

If you love a genre and read it extensively, you know it well enough to write in it. Be bold. Be adventurous. Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and cannot write. Write what you love, and you won’t go wrong.

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