The Modern Ink Society-Featuring Sarah Beth Durst!
July 2, 2017
Write What You Love
by Sarah Beth Durst
I want to tell you about my least favorite bit of writing advice: “Write what you know.”
Bleck. No.
Well… that is… not exactly.
Okay, maybe there’s some truth to it, but here’s the sneaky little secret with that old chestnut: what you know at the start of writing a novel is entirely different from what you know at the end of it. By the end of it, you’ve written about what you know. It’s just you didn’t know it on page one.
The act of writing is an ongoing act of discovery.
I’m constantly drawn to writing about the things I don’t (or even can’t) know, such as what it’s like to fly on a winged lion or to ride a zipline between Lothlorien/Endor-size trees or to summon a kraken.
I love to write about places I’ve never been, places I can’t go, and places I’d never dare go. I love to write about being brave, doing the impossible task, and fighting the unbeatable evil.
In real life, I’d make a terrible adventurer. I overpack. I hate bugs. I don’t like being too hot or too cold, and I am deeply grateful for modern plumbing. But in fiction… ahh, in fiction, I can travel anywhere, be anyone, and do anything!
For my new epic fantasy series, The Queens of Renthia (which started with THE QUEEN OF BLOOD and continues on July 4th with THE RELUCTANT QUEEN), I created a world of extreme beauty with trees so enormous that cities are nestled in their branches and mountains so high they pierce the clouds, and I filled this idyllic land with nature spirits. But these aren’t sweet, pastoral sprites — these spirits want to kill all humans, and only certain women have the power to control them.
In other words, I created a world in which I’d be dead in about five seconds.
So I thoroughly reject the “write what you know” advice.
Instead I’d like to change it to: “Write what you love.” Write what interests you, what moves you, what touches your heart. Write the book you want to read. Don’t write what you know; write what you WANT to know.
Check out Sarah’s new book! Read her Q & A on Goodreads.
This entry was posted in Featuring Authors, The Modern Ink Society.
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