Write What You Know? No.

How many times have you started to write something, or felt even that first little blush of excitement at a new idea you wanted to tell a story about, only to start feeling the overwhelming horror rise up that maybe you just don’t know enough about it to write it? It’s happened to me… like, every time.

I remember that One True Law of writing, taught to me by the elders of old, that you must “write what you know”, which took root in my brain at a pretty formative point in my creative beginnings. But then one day a funny thought occurred to me: how did George Lucas write about an ancient culture of Jedi and Sith, Empire and Rebellion? He wasn’t there. And how did J R R Tolkien tell the mythology of elves and dwarves, and a little Shire full of Hobbits, and dragons and ancient wizards….?

Obviously, the whole commandment of writing what you know has to have a couple of loopholes, right?

So here’s my proposal: write what you love.

I’ll explain.

There is at least one thing - a hobby, a pastime, a job or a talent that you have, that you didn’t know. You might be a whiz at knitting, but twas not ever thus. You might cook brilliantly, but you overcooked something or forgot to add the eggs or the salt or confused T with t and al hell broke loose. You didn’t always know about comic books or doll collections, you weren’t always fluent in that second language (and it might be Klingon!) or only had one old coin that you didn’t know a lot about but thought it looked cool.

Or that spouse or that child or that pet of yours - you didn’t always know them as well as you do now. There was a moment where you met them for the first time. And of course, at that point everything changed.

And this is what I mean when I say Write What You Love.

I made up a whole universe for my first couple series. Aerthos. Aesirium. Reapers. Jumptanks. Feranzanthums. Barrowisks. Giant, sentient machines. Morrow Stones. The Massarin. Song Mistresses and Sword Masters. I had to learn about AI, steam engines, pirate ships, synesthesia. I had to make up languages, histories and cultures that did not entirely exist. I didn’t know all these things before I started writing about Rom, Sjora and Favo. I had to find them. And I went looking for them because I loved the promise of the stories I felt they had to tell.

As a writer - as a hobbyist or a professional - it has to start with love. With passion. Or at least just a serious want to put these ideas on paper. You gotta WANT it, right? And if you really want it, then you’re gonna do the legwork. You’re gonna dig in. You’re gonna go exploring. Creating. Building. Celebrating. Even if it doesn’t mean reaching into your brain and fabricating the world you’re writing in - even if it’s telling the story that made you YOU, or telling the tale that comes from your background or your culture of the world that you love. Whether fiction or non, telling the story starts in you.

The story may frighten you, enrage you, tickle your fancy, or challenge your mind - but it starts with that passion, that personal engagement which lets the story wrap its invisible tendrils around you and demand to be told. Whether you share that story with others, or just write it out so you can see what’s inside your heart. It starts with the need to be told.

So, what is it? What story is the story in your heart? What do you love?

That is your story.