The WDC NanoLounge

My advice. Ignore the experts and write what you want. Writing what you know is such a generalized thing that we tend to make very narrow. I am writing fantasy. I have never met a member of the Fae, or a dragon, or a vampire. I don't know what a werewolf is really like up close and personal. I can imagine them though. I can imagine living in a world where you are out numbered ten to one by people who are afraid of you, simply because you are who you are. I can imagine a world where people confuse true magic with hollywood magick. I can imagine a world where everyone strives to be an individual but need others to conform so much that they bully them into behaving the same.

I can imagine it because in broad strokes it's the world we live in today. It's a world I grew up in. So when they say write what you know they mean let your knowledge of the world guide you, use your expertise when its applicable but never limit yourself on the story you can tell. You never know when that story will be amazing after all, fiction is just that fiction. Making it that personal just turns it into a fictional version of your life, and what fun is that? I don't know about you but I write to escape the harshness of reality for at least a little while each day. Why in the world would I want to take that advice in short strokes? Save looking that closely at yourself for your auto biography when your famous.