write what you know | write what you know
May.19.2013
There are two things you’ll hear a lot when people start giving out advice on writing.
- Write what you know
- POV matters
I’m not much for cut-and-dried rules; I write what I write, and I write ‘how’ I write, but sometimes I can go back after the fact and pick out some things...
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Oct.02.2012
This is the text of a guest blog I did on the fantasist and teacher Alyx Dellamonica's blog, "Off My Lawn". You should check out her web site and blog! It's terrific.
Beginning writers are told to “Write what you know.” Mark Twain said it. My first writing instructor said it...
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May.31.2012
Reminder: My NOOK contest will end June 10th. Don’t skip a chance to win a NOOK Simple Touch. And, I’ll have gift certificates for second and third place winners. You can’t win if you don’t enter. Rules are here.
Write what you know, everyone says. If I did...
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Dec.01.2010
In Glimmer, a book about Bruce Mau’s design theory written by Warren Berger, Berger writes:
As we age, our focus of attention widens and we can actually take in more information. We also become better problem solvers — able to take the information soaked up from one situation and apply it to...
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Mar.02.2010
Why would a father stop at nothing to make sure his daughter gets an experimental surgery that may improve her quality of life, only to have a change of heart at the last minute?
The father's name is Trevor. He's the MC in my novel, Genni's Box. He and I went through a series of ups and downs...
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Jan.22.2010
Write what you know. How about write what you sort of know? I’m a suburban housewife, far removed from the gritty life of the streets. I must have been crazy to write “Bad Trip,” a story about a crack house, a crack whore and a pimp along with a naïve help desk technician who is trying to be a...
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Jan.22.2010
The perimeter of my work has gradually shortened, gone from imaginative escapism to real life only with no overlap in between at all, in the last five years. Gradually, because at first I thought it was a natural shift in perspective, but now realize it was more about trying to find my comfort zone...
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Jul.16.2009
In class the other night we talked about Melanie Rae Thon’s brilliant story “Little White Sister,” which not only an amazing read but an important lesson to writers: Write beyond what you know.
In this interview with BOMB Magazine, Thon talks about her decision to write from the perspective of a...
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Dec.22.2008
When I was in college studying to become a magazine journalist, I was taught to write what I know. No matter whose class I took or the type of class, the professor always told the students the same thing: Write what you know. The caveat to this rule lay in its reverse: If you can't write about what...
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Jul.14.2008
The phrase "write what you know" is a misnomer. It doesn't mean that if you're a lawyer, you have to write about lawyers; if you're a policeman, you have to write about the police; if you're a housewife, you have to write about housewives; if you're a crack head, you have to write about...
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