write what you know

Write what you know is the most misunderstood adage in the writing world. For most of us, ‘what we know’ is actually pretty dull and boring – the day-to-day minutiae of stuff. But we’re all human. We all feel things (ugh, feelings). We all know stuff that other people don’t know. We’ve all experienced the world, with all its ups and downs and sideways strangeness. And the secret to good writing is translating all that innate human-y knowledge into something honest and realistic.

We will show you how to harness the power of your innate human-y knowledge; how to draw from what you DO know and translate that into fantastical, imaginative, moving, amazing writing.

We know that sometimes writing into the unknown can be terrifying. How do you put yourself into the shoes of someone other than yourself? How do you visualise and accurately depict a place you’ve never been? How do you write about something you’ve never done and make it feel REAL?

You start with what you know. You use the experiences you already have on tap and adapt them, tweak ’em, manipulate and amplify them until they serve your purposes. You show your writing chops and turn what you know into what you don’t know in a believable, honest, and realistic way.

Sounds easy/difficult/terrifying, huh? Yep. All of those.

But we’re gonna do it anyway.