I feel compelled to remind any would-be writers who might be reading that "write what you know" should not, in fact, be taken literally.
For instance, Ayelet Waldman's Nursery Crimes tells us that the author is a Jewish graduate of Harvard Law School who served as a Federal public defender before becoming a full-time mother in San Francisco, California, and who's married to Michael Chabon, the novelist and screenwriter.
Her protagonist, Juliet Appelbaum, is a Jewish graduate of Harvard Law School who served as a Federal public defender before becoming a full-time mother in Los Angeles, California, and who's married to a screenwriter.
See, that change from San Francisco to Los Angeles makes all the difference.
Similarly, John Ringo, a former paratrooper who became a database admin and stepfather in North Carolina, wrote A Hymn Before Battle, featuring a protagonist who was a former paratrooper who became a database admin and stepfather near Atlanta. So you can see that Ringo took care to extend himself beyond simply writing what he knew.
"Write what you know" should, probably, be taken more as an injunction against writing that of which you are ignorant. Take your cue from these rising stars of genre fiction.
Posted by Greg at August 26, 2003 3:24 PM