Returning to the Common Advice series with what is probably the most commonly known. In fact its so common, that no one even bothers to say it much these days. Its been thrown out so often, we seem to have thrown it out permanently. And it would seem most writers are very glad.
Creative writing teachers should be purged until every last instructor who has uttered the words “Write what you know” is confined to a labor camp. Please, talented scribblers, write what you don’t. The blind guy with the funny little harp who composed The Iliad , how much combat do you think he saw?
P.J. O’Rourke
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
Old Rourke (was he old?) wasn’t alone.
If I write what you know, I bore you; if I write what I know, I bore myself, therefore I write what I don’t know.
Robert DuncanWrite what…
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