Write What You Know

I am sure all of you have heard that phrase before. Writers should write what you know. Write from experience. Honestly, that statement is SO true, and yet, I find so many authors ignoring that step. The successful authors however. They have grabbed on to that phrase and are living the dream.

First of all, let me say that writing what you know doesn't mean to just write biographical stories or to take your own life and to fictionalize it. While some do this, what we are talking about is to work with experiences and knowledge that your are simply familiar with. In other words, if you are someone who loves reading inspirational romance, then you know and understand all of those nuances of that genre. You know what makes it tick. It isn't just about a tame, sweet romance with Bible verse quoting. You know it is much more. For those of you who read series romance such as Tule, Entangled and Harlequin, you understand the voice of each of those lines. Therefore, if you are not familiar with this style of writing, it would be harder to write it. 

Authors will often ask editors and agents, or simply scour the Internet, in a search for the hottest new trend. "That is what I am going to write now!" While that might sound like the right approach, is this something you know? Do you really understand it? 

When YA and New Adult romance really started, there were a lot of authors trying to jump on the bandwagon! I can do this! It can't be that hard? But you have to remember, who is the audience who will be reading your story? Theoretically it will that YA and New Adult population, but if you are not around this population, if you are not part of the population, if you have not been that age for a while, you WILL NOT get the nuances. What happened for so many authors is they wrote their adult romances and simply changed the ages of characters. Now we had kids having sex and saying things they "thought kids would likely be saying" because they heard someone say it at a mall.

Not exactly authentic.

Jo Beverley was once asked why she didn't write outside of her historical time  period. It was just this reason. She understood the Regency period. She got it! Could she step out of the period and "research another time" or to "learn another time?" Sure. But she also knew it would be a gamble of whether the story would be authentic or not. 

So take my advice. Stick to what you know. 

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