Debunking the Myth: Only Write What You Know

Debunking the myth, "Write what you know." As a writer, we have all heard it; back in the day if you had taken a writing class, Write what you know is one of the first things you would have heard.

And think about it what could be more encouraging than staying in ones comfort zone and writing about only the experiences that you have had or the experiences of the people you know have had.

As interesting as your life and the people around you lives may be at some point the write what you know theory will become limiting, then what?

Either you are going to have to decide to leave your comfort zone and write about things you may not totally know about (God Bless the internet for research) or you're probably going to have to find another vocation.

The world is filled with stories that are just waiting to be told, you may not be familiar with all the facets of a particular story but that can be a beautiful thing.

The writing process is an organic one; the journey from the blank page to finished product is what matters.

I once saw a movie, a love story really, about a 12-year-old girl who happened to be a vampire and a boy her age who was the victim of bullies at his school.

The film was written by a man in is late thirties or early forties and it was a haunting, yet touching story about two lonely kids.

Vampires do not exist as we all know, and the writer was a man not a little girl so the "write what you know," theory will not apply here.

There is no way a man could ever know what it is like to be a 12-year-old girl or a vampire for that matter, but what he could do, and did was research.

He asked children of that age from his family how they felt, and how they would handle being in that situation.

He took what they told him and combine that with some in-depth research on Vampire lore, and before he knew it he was writing about something he hadn't known anything about previously.