Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.
– Howard Nemerov
I’ve talked about this before. Learning to write what I know instead of what I want to know. I have at least two draft novels, maybe more, that I wrote during NaNoWriMo that needed a change of venue, back to Southwest Virginia. The place where I grew up. The place and people that I know.
Still, I want to avoid an Allison MacKenzie moment and not have the entire town come to hate me.
That’s a Peyton Place reference. Look it up, it will do you good.
But as I’ve become more and more serious about this writing venture, I’ve realized the benefit of writing what I
Your state is available at Mug Shots (click the pic).
know.
Sure, even in that there’s often research that needs to be done. But, instead of setting novels in Mississippi or South Carolina, which I have done, I’ve moved them back home.
That means edits like changing terrain and agriculture and a lot of other things.
It’s all works in progress.
Maybe this is why I find the whole process of copy writing to be such a challenge. That’s all about writing what someone else knows. I can do it. I’m actually pretty good at it, but it’s hard work. Feel free to offer to pay me if you need me to tell your story.
I digress. I’m serious about the paying part, but still, I digress.
Even the experts who tell you that you can write a book in 90-seconds…no wait…that’s 90 days…will tell you to write what you know. In fact that’s their pattern.
While I didn’t take the challenge or buy the fool-proof system from the latest webinar and book that I read, I did set some new, self-imposed, deadlines.
The first draft of the script will be finished by the end of February. The first draft of the novel will be finished by Memorial Day.
Bookmark this page and then come back and ask me if I made it.
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