"Write What You Know" Is Terrible Advice

How following curiosity—not just experience—unlocked stories I never knew I had in me.

Ravi Patel

Mar 15, 2025

7 min read

The Lie That Limited Me for a Decade

I spent my twenties writing thinly veiled autobiography—stories about midwestern boys with daddy issues (shocking, I know). My workshop praised them as "honest." My mom called them "self-indulgent." Both were right. Then, on a whim, I wrote about a 17th-century scribe accused of forging religious texts. Suddenly, my writing came alive.

Here’s why "write what you know" is the worst-best advice—and what to do instead.

The Problem With Mining Your Life

Autobiographical writing isn’t bad. But treating experience as the only valid wellspring:

Turns creativity into therapy (your readers aren’t your therapists)
Ignores research’s magic (Tolstoy never went to war before War and Peace)
Gets boring fast (how many times can you rewrite your breakup?)

The alternative? Write what you want to know. My "scribe" story forced me to study:

Medieval ink recipes
The psychology of deception
How parchment smells when burning (thanks, historical reenactors)

This research bled into my modern stories, making even my "personal" work richer.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick Your Canvas
Choose from minimalist, magazine-style, or quirky layouts—all optimized for readability. (Yes, that means real typography and no blinding white backgrounds)

2. Write Like You Mean It
Our editor strips away distractions. Just you, a blank page, and the comforting blink of a cursor. Need to draft on your phone? Scribbble’s mobile flow feels like writing in a leather-bound journal.

3. Hit Publish, Not Panic
No SEO plugins to configure, no cache to clear. Scribbble handles the tech while you handle the storytelling.

How to Steal This Approach

Follow the "Google rabbit hole"

Start with something that makes you curious (Why do old books smell like vanilla?)
Fall down the research hole until you’re taking notes on 18th-century paper preservation

Marry the unfamiliar to the emotional truth
- My scribe’s fear of being exposed mirrored my own creative insecurities
- The facts were foreign; the feelings were mine
Embrace "productive wrongness"
- Got the ink recipe wrong? A historian emailed me—and became a beta reader

Try This Today

Pick something you know nothing about (space archaeology, competitive whistling)

Research for 20 minutes—just enough to fascinate, not enough to "master"
Write a paragraph where a character cares about this deeply

P.S. My next story’s about a typewriter repairwoman in 1940s Paris. I’ve never been to Paris. Or repaired a typewriter. This should be fun.

Why This Works

Challenges sacred writing advice with personal proof

Practical steps make it actionable immediately
Shows the research-to-creativity pipeline

Want to add a reader challenge or famous examples of authors who did this well?