Unpopular opinion on ubiquitous writing advice - Write what you know

Deconstructing writing advice "Write What you know" found every which where, but may not be always applicable for debut writers trying to break into the publishing industry.

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all doing well. Today I thought I’d share a bit from my writing experiences and how every bit of writing advice may not be fruitful for every writer. I learned it the hard way so here I am sharing my experiences with you all. Someone might as well benefit from all my tears…

But before that, you have my heartfelt gratitude for being a subscriber of The Writer Story newsletter and I’d encourage you to comment and let me know if you’re interested in any specific topic of discussion.

Okay let’s begin…

---

Write What You Know…

Or Not…

When I started taking my writing seriously, and considered publishing as a potential career path, I researched quite a bit on advice for writers starting out. Like every newbie writer, aspiring to write the next masterpiece…

And one of the ubiquitous advice was to write what you know.

And who was I to question such seemingly great writing advice. I wrote a story that I knew, pulled our raw experiences from my past, from the past of people close to me, stories ingrained in my culture. The things I grew up with, that I have intimate knowledge of. I poured out intricate details of things I know.

I finished the draft of the novel. It was a contemporary romance, set in a small town in India, filled with experiences which I was familiar with. Before someone asks, let me just clarify it wasn’t autobiographical. But it was everything I knew, tidbits of what it is like growing up in a tier 2/3 city in India, dealing with societal norms and cultural obligations, the mindset of the people around, including the local festivals and delicacies.

As I polished my manuscript readying it to query, I was feeling pretty proud of it. I loved the story, the characters. And I still do.

But…

We all know there’s a but coming here, right…

Well yes…

I started querying with great enthusiasm. And I had a great query pitch too. I can say that since I got many full requests, more than 15. I stopped counting after that really.

But nothing panned out to anything more than rejections.

And there was one primary reason for it. They didn’t connect with the characters or voice and their motivations. And I’m not saying this because I’m salty about it. Absolutely not. It was a learning experience and I have no regrets at all.

From the rejections I received, I objectively dissected the feedback and there was one common thread — Unrelatable Characters/Voice…

Here are some of the full rejections I received for that book.

• Thank you for sending me (Title Redacted). I loved the premise and concept of the book and I enjoyed reading it. However, I didn’t fall in love with the characters.

• This is such a fun hook and your narrative style is so well-suited for this genre. Unfortunately, I just don't have the editorial vision to take this to the next level.

• I was really excited to sit down with this manuscript. I love the Indian culture that is infused in each page and getting to see (MC Name redacted) change throughout the course of the novel. However, while I enjoyed your writing, it came off sounding almost Victorian in its tone which made it hard for me to connect to the voice and the story as a whole.

• Although I enjoyed reading, ultimately I didn't feel this was quite the right fit for me, so I have decided to pass. I love the overall idea and this was a fun and lively read, I'm just not convinced I could sell it.

So writing what you know doesn’t always work, because your experiences— in case you are a minority— will not always be relatable and thus, not saleable. I know it’s hard to digest it, but sadly it’s the harsh truth.

If you want to write for the fun of it, absolutely write what you want. More power to you. But if your goal is to publish in the English language market, you’d need to tweak things to be more palatable to the audience.

Well, that’s what I did. The second book I wrote is set in an imaginary island in the Indian Ocean. It has references to the Indian culture but it’s made more palatable to the American/European audience. And it did get me my agent.

So the writing advice of “Write What You Know” won’t work for all. Take it with a grain of salt. Do your research, read more books and imbibe as much as you can.

Make the essence of the story what you know, but research your embellishments, your characters, their experiences, the settings. It’s your story after all. Do what serves you best.

Also writing outside of your comfort zone can be great, because you’ll need to research, learn and grow with it, which will definitively make your characters more imaginative and relatable.

But know that this advice only applies to debut authors, if you are well-established with a strong lineup of books to back you, write whatever you like.

Okay, enough of it now.. If you’d like to receive wonderful writing/querying/publishing articles and amazing author interviews, make sure to subscribe to The Writer Story.

See you next Saturday…

~Toodle-oo~