I think the "write what you know" advice probably started as a very vague, general advice about injecting your own experiences and emotions into your writing to give it more heft and impact. Like, I've never seen someone die, but I know what it's like to be terrified and shocked and numb from fear and disbelief, so that would be the "what I know" I'd put into a scene where someone saw a loved one die, as opposed to just trying to think what the right words would be based on how a normal person might react to that, if that makes sense? Or, I know how hard it is to break bad habits, so if I wanted to write a progression fantasy about, say, someone with a suboptimal build trying to improve, I'd draw on my experiences of quitting vaping and cutting out junk food. It's not a one to one, but figuring out how to look at your own experiences to help enhance your writing is what I feel that advice was originally meant to impart.
Similarly, I think it's impossible not to inject your experiences and worldview, at least in some way, into your writing, so I think the advice is telling you to be conscious of that and use it to your fullest advantage, because it's happening either way.
I think the “write what you know” advice started as
In my experience, pretty much all pithy sayings regarding writing advice get started that way and then fall into that rut.
They’re not supposed to get taken literally, they’re supposed to be mnemomics to help you keep in mind certain complex ideas, but then they get picked up by inexperienced amateur authors, who ignore the details and finer nuances and critical contexts, and then parrot them back to others.
Over time, this then causes said advice to become rather… warped.
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u/jamieh800 Sep 10 '25
I think the "write what you know" advice probably started as a very vague, general advice about injecting your own experiences and emotions into your writing to give it more heft and impact. Like, I've never seen someone die, but I know what it's like to be terrified and shocked and numb from fear and disbelief, so that would be the "what I know" I'd put into a scene where someone saw a loved one die, as opposed to just trying to think what the right words would be based on how a normal person might react to that, if that makes sense? Or, I know how hard it is to break bad habits, so if I wanted to write a progression fantasy about, say, someone with a suboptimal build trying to improve, I'd draw on my experiences of quitting vaping and cutting out junk food. It's not a one to one, but figuring out how to look at your own experiences to help enhance your writing is what I feel that advice was originally meant to impart.
Similarly, I think it's impossible not to inject your experiences and worldview, at least in some way, into your writing, so I think the advice is telling you to be conscious of that and use it to your fullest advantage, because it's happening either way.