Write What You Know

Writing does not have any rules, except perhaps for grammatical and spelling rules. It only has guidelines like plot structures, how long a book may be, how many flaws a character can have and many many more. A well known guideline among writers is "write what you know". And honestly, I completely agree with it and I actually see it as some kind of rule. You mind think it would limited your writing and perhaps even make it boring, but that is not true.  At least not if you interpret it in the same way as I do.

Write what you know means to me research. If you do not know how a helicopter works, but you need one in your story, look it up or talk to someone who does know. It does not mean if you don't know it today, you cannot know it tomorrow. Research is not always fun. It can even be incredible boring, hard and perhaps even expensive but it is a very important part of the writing progress.

With writing down a story and hopefully getting it published, you want to entertain or move your readers. in order to this, you want the reader to be able to relate to the story or it's characters. In other words, it has to be convincing. Even fantasy and science-fiction. You can make a story convincing by knowing what you are writing about. If you create a fantasy world where magic is feared, there has to be an explanation why it is feared. Perhaps someone used it to tear a kingdom apart or maybe it corrupts the user. If the weather plays an important role in your story, you can write more convincingly about it if you actually know how it works. Know what you want to write.

After you have done the necessary research and you are thus going to write what you know, be careful not to overwhelm the reader with everything you know about it. Only share was is strictly needed for the plot, character development or to create a certain mood. Nothing is more annoying than to read irrelevant information. A writer needs to know everything about his story (and world) in order to built it up and make it believable, but you don't have to feed the reader every detail. An proficient knowledge of how cars and all it's parts work, is not necessary to be able to drive it. The people who designed it do need to know that and those who fix the cars have hopefully a proficient knowledge of it. It the same with a reader: the do not have to know how everything works in order to enjoy a story, they have to know enough to be able to drive through it. Just teach the reader the basics, as someone who drives a car should know the traffic rules.