Writing gurus often advise to write what you know. I object. Few writers live lives, even episodes, that the average reader would care in the least to read about. So most writers write what they do not know. They write about somebody else and somebody else's experiences. Yet, something of the writer's experiences creeps into his or her narrative. For example, I wrote a screenplay, titled Sakura, and a novella based on the screenplay, about a love affair between a U.S. Navy officer and a Japanese girl in Japan. Everyone who reads it predictably asks whether it is autobiographical. It is not, but when a writer tells a story that includes episodes that appear similar to what the writer has experienced, then the question is inevitable: is that you I'm reading about (grin, snicker snicker)?