Write What You Know? OR Not?
by Tari Lynn Jewett
I’m a rule follower. That person who stops at a stop sign, even though there’s no one around… that’s me. I won’t use the ten items or less check-out line with eleven items, even if I have eleven chocolate bars, and I never return my library books late. Well, there was that one time, but I paid my fines and stayed away from the library for more than a year out of shame.
And yet, I have been known to break a few rules. (Don’t tell my parents. Wait, don’t tell my kids!) Sometimes I knew the rules and made a choice, and I’ll admit, sometimes I just didn’t know the rules.
As a writer, (even if you’re not a ‘writer’) there are an overabundance of rules, and I’m likely to break a few in the approximately thousand words of this post. There are punctuation and spelling rules, formatting rules, rules for non-fiction and rules for fiction. There are rules specific to the genre you write, rules of business and etiquette, marketing rules. And to make it more challenging, every now and then the rules change! One of the most basic rules. Write What You Know.
I’ve told this story before, but here it is.
I never considered myself a writer. I mean I wrote. Writing has been my passion since…well, always, but a writer, or maybe I should say A WRITER was someone special, someone with magical power that could transport you to other worlds, someone who offered you the opportunity to live other lives. I just wrote.
So, at twenty-one years old with a nine-month-old baby, I decided that I had all of the answer to parenthood, and that I’d write a parenting column for our local newspaper, The Butterfield Express. (Why yes, I do write in run-on sentences…it’s also how I talk!)
I wrote several sample columns, walked into the offices of The Butterfield Express, and asked to speak to the editor. That was probably the first rule I broke. I didn’t send a query letter, I didn’t make an appointment, I just walked in and asked to speak to an editor. But I didn’t know any better, and they gave me the column.
The second rule that I broke was – Write What You Know.
I’ll give myself credit for thinking I was writing something I knew, but I’ll admit it was pretty naïve. More than forty years later, after raising three boys you couldn’t pay me enough to write a parenting column. I KNOW that I don’t know.
But I wrote that column, and I’m glad it was before the internet, because I’ll be happy if those columns are never seen again! More importantly, I learned a few things about writing and working with a publisher.
What I didn’t learn was that you didn’t walk into an editor’s office unannounced and ask for a column on a topic in which you really had no expertise, so…
…a few years later, I decided I wanted to write a consumer law column for The Moreno Valley News. Despite having no law degree, no legal background of any kind…unless dating a lawyer counts, and being told no one would give me a law column, I prepared several sample columns and marched into the offices of The Moreno Valley News and asked to see an editor.
Maybe I didn’t learn anything from my first experience, because I made the exact same mistakes. I didn’t make an appointment, and I didn’t Write What I Knew.
But they gave me the column, and I probably learned more from this experience.
The third column I wrote was a cooking column for The Antelope Valley Press Enterprise; no, this time I didn’t walk into the office with an envelope of samples and ask to see an editor. This time, the editor called me by accident. Yes, it was a wrong number phone call, and I took the opportunity to pitch a food column…but I still wasn’t writing what I knew. At this point I had a handful of recipes in my repertoire, and they all contained some flavor of cream of -insert a flavor here- soup. Yes, I got the column, and once again, I wrote what I didn’t know.
Making an appointment to see an editor instead of walking into their office unannounced, is probably a rule that should be followed. I might have gotten lucky…twice.
But, writing what you know is a rule that can be broken.
Writing what you know is intrinsic. It’s going to happen while you write, and knowing your subject well, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction gives it depth, and helps the reader to connect with your words.
Writing what you don’t know offers an opportunity to explore things you’re curious about, and build new areas of knowledge, and can help your readers to do the same.
I no longer write for magazines and newspaper, my focus is fiction, and while I definitely write about what I know, and my experiences and those others have share appear in all of my stories, I also write about what I don’t know. It’s the curiosity about the things that I don’t know that make me dig deeper, that send me looking for more.
And if we all wrote what we knew, there would be no vampire stories, no Little Mermaid, Captain Kirk wouldn’t have had what is basically a flip phone today…because they didn’t exist and the writer couldn’t have KNOWN them. It’s our imaginations that build a story.
So, write what you know…and write what you don’t.
What rules have you broken and still won?
About Tari Lynn Jewett
Tari Lynn Jewett lives off Route 66 with her husband of 37 years. They have three amazing sons, a board game designer, a sound engineer and a musician. For over fifteen years she wrote freelance for magazines and newspapers, wrote television commercials, radio spots, numerous press releases, and many, MANY PTA newsletters. As much as she loved writing those things, she always wanted to write fiction . . . and now she is.
She also believes in happily ever after . . . because she’s living hers.
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34 comments on “Write What You Know? OR Not?”
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I like rephrasing the 'write what you know" rule into "Know What You Write."
Research has never been easier to help us learn what we need to learn to write authentically.
I love that twist, Marie!
Isn't that the truth Marie! I remember having an idea in the middle of the night, and having to wait until the library opened to do research! That was awful if it was a Saturday night, lol.
Thanks for your thoughtful post, Tari!
Here's another spin on "write what you know"... write what your reader doesn't know.
Authors are curious folks. And our curiosity fuels our storytelling. I proudly put my Curious-George nature to work. For the most part, my readers are glad I did and do!
Amen to that, Chris! I learned that when I was teaching computer classes. I didn't have to know EVERYTHING. I just had to know more than my students.
Love it Chris! Curious-George is one of my favorites, and while my curiosity has gotten me into a little trouble on occasion, as you said, it's also what fuels the storytelling!
Never, ever edit until you have finished writing because if you do, you'll never finish writing.
I break this rule all the time, and I have finished writing a lot of stuff.
We have to pick and choose the rules that work for us! I think as long as we get our stories told, we're doing it the right way.
I think of it this way: Write what you need to write and learn what you need to know to write it.
I don't believe in writing rules. There are guidelines. Sure. And there are some choices that may make your work a harder sell to bookstores or editors and agents or readers. But there are no hard and fast rules.
We're creative people! We have to do what works for us, following the rules can sometimes ruin our stories!
I love that, "Write what you need ... learn what you need ..." Great advice.
And the second paragraph is wise advice.
I write at least nominally historical romance. However, the romance is not the entire story.This does not really break a rule as Georgette Heyer's and Patricia Veryan's books seem to qualify as romantic suspense set in the Georgian or Regency periods. However, many romance novels do focus on the romance.
My heroines are not always beautiful, which I've been told is a prerequisate. My characters are not always titled; sometimes they're merely gentry or not even that. Occasionally there are moral quandaries that cannot be neatly resolved.
Oh, and I'm a fanatic about correct background details. You will not find my characters eating chocolates or scones because they had not been invented yet, using a "special license" to marry quickly, or thinking they can annul a marriage by reason of non-consummation.
I love historical romance, and I want to read about average people. In my romcoms, I don't write billionaires, or perfect heroines. I want to feel like I could be part of that world! I do appreciate the historical accuracy though!
I love this post, Tari Lynn. I have been thinking a lot about this lately, as my historical fiction novel took twelve years to write, including so much research: emigration on ships, train schedules, costs, clothing, medicine...etc. etc. in Britain, America and Canada in the early 1900's. I knew nothing about the Isle of Man, Michigan, Mackinac Island, Manitoulin Island, Owen Sound...Now I know so much, and can share it with others. But I did indeed write what I know, because I've experienced the feelings and motivations of the characters: the struggle for independence, the grief of loss, the fear of failure, being manipulated...I think we can all write about such things from the heart.
The rest is just a vehicle to express the depth of our life experiences. Someone said you write the same novel over and over. I can see that in my two. I was actually shocked to realize it. Keep breaking the rules. It's the only way to move forward!
That's perfectly said Lisa! I feel that I also write the feelings and motivations that I've experienced. That's the part I need to know. The rest is variations. And I get writing the same story because sometimes we're working out those feelings in our stories.
Great post,Tari! Thanks for sharing with us here at WITS.
Thank you for inviting me! I love blogging with WITS.
🙂 🙂
I got my start as a writer with a byline, just like you did! By breaking the rules. Wrote an essay, took it in person to the editor of our local newspaper with a column idea. She said, "Bring me 4 more like this, and we'll see." I was writing about what I knew: marriage, kids, life, very much like Erma Bombeck used to write.
I did, and a 6-month trial period turned into a 5-year weekly column where I learned a lot about surprise endings, dialogue, writing tight, coming up with ideas, and so forth. Best experience ever.
Great post!
When I started writing screenplays, I broke the rules by cold-calling producers who invited me to send them my scripts. Was working with half a dozen different producers who were looking for the right fit for a project. Kept encouraging me to submit.
I'm still breaking the rules.
I love that I'm not alone in showing up to an editors office with an idea!! I also feel that my experience writing for the newspapers and later magazines taught me to write tight. I rarely have to cut from my fiction, although sometimes I have to expand a little bit! Let's keep breaking the rules and doing what we love.
Thank you Diane! I'm glad I'm not the only one who walked into an editors office with an idea! I also feel like I learned to write tight writing for newspapers and magazines. I rarely have to cut from my fiction, but frequently have to expand, lol. Keep breaking the rules and making things happen!
I go by "Write what you can learn." Even when I'm writing what I know, there's always something I didn't know about the topic.
Absolutely! I think that's a much better policy!
I am multitudes, I can write about anything. I am not writing how to books, I write fiction. No one ought to use my fiction as documentation .
I like to write about anything and everything. When I write non-fiction I do the research and interview people, and try to make it as factual as possible, even if it's a topic new to me. When I write fiction, while I want it to be believable, IT'S FICTION! Thank you for reading!
Write a fictional world that you control, but it still sounds believable.
There is no single reality out there, no universal true situation that applies to everyone.
There is room for MY version of Hollywood - as fed for years by new and gossip - and room for me to put MY kind of characters into that kind of fame, and wonder what happens.
I don't think that's intrinsically any different from the creations of writers of cozy mysteries or noir romances: if I can tell a compelling story, there will be people like me who will want to hear it.
It's up to me to create something of a quality I'm happy to attach my name to.
Absolutely agree with you!!
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. It was so easy to connect with your story. I especially liked, "It’s the curiosity about the things that I don’t know that make me dig deeper, that send me looking for more." As an author of Science Fiction and SFF, I pretend to know a lot. Lightspeed travel, artificial persons, alien races, what my wife mentioned she'd like for her birthday. I do my research, but then I mostly make stuff up.
Making stuff up is most of the fun! So I'd love to know what you 'make up' for your wife's birthday?? lol
Love how you got lucky - twice. You are onto something! And as a SF/F writer, I have to agree that "what I know" is pretty limiting...
Thank you Lisa...would you believe I also got a cooking column when I couldn't cook, from a wrong number phone call!?! I think SF/F are fun because so much of what you write is what's in your imagination. What goes on in a writer's head should be studied! (I just don't want my internet history studied.)
I loved this, and enjoyed your writing style. Got lucky twice, yes, but worked hard too.
I just had a short story accepted by a literary journal, telling of an Australian surfer who is a newcomer to Central Asia, and suddenly finds himself heaved onto a horse and sent galloping out to join a game of buzkashi,a rather violent form of polo endemic to Central Asia. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) I have never ridden a surfboard and know nothing of the culture. And despite living in Central Asia for ten years I have never watched a game of buzkashi, either. But I am able to knit together what I do know, with careful research, and have a convincing story come out of the process. Apparently.
Some rules are meant to be broken, or at least tweaked.
Including starting a sentence with and.
Thank you! And, lol,congratutlations! I'd love to know where your story is being published!