“Write what you know”: An oft-debated and more oft-misunderstood piece of writing advice. Does it mean fictionalizing your autobiography? Should you only write about things you know literally first-hand?
Nah. There are better ways to express this advice.
- “Write what you feel.”
- “Write what you’ve experienced.”
- “Write what you’ve learned.”
In an article for Writer’s Digest, Kris Spisak says that writing what she knew helped shape her debut novel. Spisak had tried to tell a certain story for many years, but never found the right story. The work didn’t come together until Spisak learned to “lean into” herself.
“Emotional intensity and authenticity are so much more than naming emotions on the page,” Spisak writes. “Drawing upon our lived emotional truths can be transformative when pulled into our creative work. The backdrops of our own lives allow us to embolden our creative possibilities.”
