Write what you love!
I used to go to writing panels at fantasy/sci fi conventions when I was in high school and in college (yes, I fully embrace my dorkiness) and inevitably someone in the audience would ask what to write? What should I write? Should I write what's hot? Should I write what I want to read? Someone would answer, "What what you know." Even at fifteen, sitting in the back of a room with a notebook on my knee, I didn't like that answer. A considerable number of years later and I know that answer is nonsense--particularly when it comes out of the the mouths of people who write the impossible.
Write what you know . . . if we all wrote what we knew then the books would all be distressingly famaliar and genres like science fiction and fantasy wouldn't exist. I write about dragons, even though I don't know any--not for a lack of wishing on my part back when I was sixteen. Therefore, I would like to change that advice. Don't write what you know--write what you love.
If you love dragons--go for it. Write the best damn dragon book you can. My first love is traditional high fantasy. You know, those books with large parties of people who travel and battle huge monsters all in search of the magical whatsit or whoever that will either save or destroy the world? Yeah. Those books. David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Terry Goodkind, those books. So, I write those.
I also love paranormal. The things that go bump in the night bumping into regular humans and turning their worlds upside down. Or those regular folks who go strolling down that normal road at the right time of night, when the moon slants just perfectly and--bamf! They're in another world or another time. So, I write those too.
I also love young adult fantasy. Suzanne Collins and Veronica Rossi give me the chills. I love the Holly Black Tithe books. Teenagers trying to find themselves finding that they're part of a much bigger world than they'd ever imagined. So, yeah. I write that too. I hope to have one of those polished up for publishing soon.
This month, you'll hear from a lot of writers who have learned to write not only what they know, but also what they love as well. I hope we all find some new books to read throughout the course of the month!
Enjoy!
Write what you know . . . if we all wrote what we knew then the books would all be distressingly famaliar and genres like science fiction and fantasy wouldn't exist. I write about dragons, even though I don't know any--not for a lack of wishing on my part back when I was sixteen. Therefore, I would like to change that advice. Don't write what you know--write what you love.
If you love dragons--go for it. Write the best damn dragon book you can. My first love is traditional high fantasy. You know, those books with large parties of people who travel and battle huge monsters all in search of the magical whatsit or whoever that will either save or destroy the world? Yeah. Those books. David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Terry Goodkind, those books. So, I write those.
I also love paranormal. The things that go bump in the night bumping into regular humans and turning their worlds upside down. Or those regular folks who go strolling down that normal road at the right time of night, when the moon slants just perfectly and--bamf! They're in another world or another time. So, I write those too.
I also love young adult fantasy. Suzanne Collins and Veronica Rossi give me the chills. I love the Holly Black Tithe books. Teenagers trying to find themselves finding that they're part of a much bigger world than they'd ever imagined. So, yeah. I write that too. I hope to have one of those polished up for publishing soon.
This month, you'll hear from a lot of writers who have learned to write not only what they know, but also what they love as well. I hope we all find some new books to read throughout the course of the month!
Enjoy!
Comments
Post a Comment