Write What You Know or Should You...

I began writing with utter reluctance. I knew that I was stepping into another territory. Although the turf is fascinating, even soul enriching, it frightened me. So, like every amateur, I sought help. I browsed Internet and read blogs of other writers (and I never stopped). I dug into books on writing. Surprisingly, every website or how to book I checked had one common advice – write what you know.

I did, I wrote what I knew and eventually I realized – I was producing trash. This got me thinking should you really write what you know? True John Grisham writes legal thrillers because he knows law. But, did J.K Rowling practice black magic? Did Raymond Chandler murdered people? Did John Sandford hack computers? No, none of them experienced what they wrote about. Even John Grisham did not work for the mafias.

So, what do we get here? Writing what you know will make the realm of fiction boring. This is fiction and you are crafting a story. You are imagining incidents that did not happen in the reality. You are illustrating characters that never existed. You are not writing what you know. You are creating.

Ann Rule writes what she knows. Of course, she does. She is a true crime story writer. But, are you? Really? If you want to write what you know, you should get into writing non-fiction. Fiction writing is exploring turfs unknown. You begin from a blank page and slowly create a world that will cease to exist without your effort. As a writer, I don’t think you should write what you know. Why restrict your creativity? Rather try to know what you want to write about.

Yes, this is the only way of writing truly compelling stories. If you want to write fantasy, research about magic. Learn how people cast spells. And you never know what you may create. Have the courage to step out of the comfort zone. Learn about the world unfamiliar to you. Enrich yourself and explore. Without the desire to know more, you cannot grow as a writer.

Since the childhood I have devoured mystery novels. Even in my adulthood I mostly read mysteries. Yet, when I picked up my pen, I feared creating a mystery story. I thought what do I know about crimes and criminals. I knew nothing about criminology either. So, I wrote what I knew. From my educational background I knew history and I wrote a historical novel. It sucked. While writing the story I knew my heart wasn’t in it. I could not visualize the world I created. But, I wrote what I knew and I was trying to be happy.

Reality hit me when the rejection letters began coming my way. I sat bemused, not being able to decode the mystery of being rejected. I was writing what I knew, then what went wrong? It took a while to realize that I was cheating myself. Historic fiction is not my genre.

That day, I changed my genre and created Rudransh Ray a criminologist who fights crime and Out in the Open just happened. When I started writing this novel, I did not even know that I will be able to finish it, that I will be able to write The End of this story. I stumbled too many times, threw away too many pages, read too many books and eventually I did finish my first mystery novel. The journey was a glorious one. What happens to this book is not the primary factor, at least not to me. I have succeeded writing a genre I know nothing about and that is the point here.

Next time you want to write that thriller, do write it. If you know about the topic, good, if you don’t know anything about it, even the better. You will have the opportunity to study and learn. So, go for it and enjoy the journey.