by Ruth Belena

Created on: November 20, 2009

There are good reasons why you might be told you should try to write about what you know. There are many benefits to be gained from following this advice. Whether you are a new writer seeking advice on what to write, or a blocked writer needing new ideas, writing about what you know will help you to achieve more with your creative fiction or your factual article writing.

* Factual writing from life experience

Factual articles should not be written as first person narratives, and knowledge articles should not just be your own point of view, but you can use your own inside knowledge to develop your article writing. You can write informative articles based on your own work experience, your medical history, your travels or your personal philosophy.

You can use your article writing skills to offer guidance and advice on any topic you know well. You could even write about what it means to be a writer, and how to overcome some of the difficulties all writers must face.

You know yourself better than anyone else can ever know you. All your life experience are of value, and writing about what you know could be an inspiration to others. You should share your own insight into what you have experienced, and be open about what you know.

* Creative writing and psychology

The more people you get to know as a writer, the better it will be for your creative writing. You can begin to imagine the impact of a fictional situation on different characters, based on how people you know face their own difficulties. You can use the experiences of your friends, family members and acquaintances.

Self knowledge and introspection can inspire ideas for stories and plot development. Your characters can react and respond in a realistic way when you know what you would do personally in that fictional situation, and you can describe your own feelings.

You can even turn your night-time dreams into fantasy, and write highly effective narrative when you describe how it feels to fly, to fall or to fear discovery.

* Research and background knowledge

Writing about what you know should not prevent creativity, nor does it in any way restrict the topics you write about. You can always know more about a subject than you do now.

You can set stories in places you know, and times you have lived through, or you can get to know about other times and other places before you start writing those stories.

Biographers never know everything about the subject of their books, until they have researched fully into the life and works of that person. Then they write about what they know.

Article writers, journalist and non-fiction writers are often requested to write pieces on subjects they know nothing about. By the time they start writing, however, they have gained as much knowledge as they need on the subject, or topic, through research.

As a writer you can take advantage of what you learn about life from your own experience, the knowledge you gain from research and the insight you get from social interaction. Then, when you do try to write about what you know, you will have plenty of ideas, and know what to write about.

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