More Stories, Creative Writing Podcast

More Stories: The Creative Writing Podcast Season 3: Episode  3 - Write What You Know! Sort of.   “Write what you know.”   This is common advice given to new writers: But, is it good advice? What does it even mean??   Write what you know cannot be taken to literally mean, “Only write about things you have directly experienced and completely understood and processed.” Otherwise, no fiction would ever be written except for thinly-disguised, fictional versions of the author’s real life. As if I were to write a story about Aaron Sherman White who drives across the skyway bridge only to realize halfway across that he’s forgotten the book he was hoping to have autographed at home and will have to turn around, thus paying the toll twice. Boring!   But KNOWING something is not limited to personally experiencing it.   The advice “write what you know” is meant to keep you from writing things that are unclear, inaccurate, or unconvincing because they lack the knowledge and detail to make it real to the reader.   In othe