Two authors duel over “write what you know.”
Timothy Louis Baker: Write what you know. You will enjoy it more than writing something you don't know anything about and have to look up everything.
Your readers will like it more too, especially when they find out that you actually do know what you are writing about and that it didn't come totally and completely from a volume on a shelf somewhere concerning a topic that you really didn't know what you were writing your book about. Choose a topic about which you are knowledgeable and you will do best.
To learn more about Timothy, check out his website at http://sbpra.com/authortimothybaker
Mobashar Qureshi : The old saying is “Write what you know.” I say, “Know what you write.”
More often than not, writing instructors preach that you should only write what you know. If I wrote only what I know, then that novel wouldn’t really be all that interesting. As a writer I am also a reader. I read books to learn new things. Hopefully, I pick up a few things from each book, essay or short story I read. This is the same with writing. While I write, I explore new things. I hope that by the end of writing that book, I will have learned a few things along that route, also.
Conclusion: Do your homework. Research enough that when you write you know what you are writing.
Mobashar is the author of RACE, The October Five, and The Paperboys Club, all now available on amazon kindle. To learn more, visit www.mobasharqureshi.com
or his blog Mobashar's Musings
I tried writing historical fiction on a subject that I didn't know before, getting much of what I wrote from a book off a shelf and it didn't work out to well for me. Maybe it's a pride or even ego thing for me, but when I write totally from what is already in my head, I get a better feeling out of it all than I do otherwise.
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