Writing Advice: On “Write What You Know”

“Write what you know” is one of those pieces of advice that means well, but often leads to some anxiety for newer writers. Writers are generally expected, encouraged, and self-motivated to imagine experiences and worlds outside of their own lives, and populate those thingswith characters that are different from the writers themselves.

That’s great. That’s wonderful. That’s what makes fiction writers tick.

And yet, you’re told that you should “write what you know.”

– Bill Watterson, “Calvin an...