Bad books on writing tell you to βWRITE WHAT YOU KNOWβ, a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery.
—
Joe Haldeman (via maxkirin)
Just choked on my fucking drink
(via thingsididntknowwereerotic)
I know nothing.
(via ktempest)
people so consistently interpret ‘write what you know’ to mean ‘write about your own life’ that the phrase is kind of useless as advice i guess. but if you interpret it to mean ‘write based on your own observations’, it becomes good advice. write personalities as you observe them in the people around you. write the speech patterns you hear. write the colors and textures and weather and feelings you experience.
but don’t PLOT what you know, because your life would probably not make a very good book.
(via laleiragoblin)
Look at how Neil Gaiman starts a book - ordinary, everyday, apparently write-what-you-know; it’s especially noticeable in Neverwhere and The Ocean at the End of the Lane if you grew up in Britain or Ireland. Then, just when you’re at ease, that comfy sweater you’re wrapped in starts to unravel in strange ways. Look at Charles Stross’s Laundry series: the atmosphere of tea or coffee, memos and forms in triplicate is all too familiar before the black-humour Elder Horrors emerge from the filing cabinets. (File under H for Horrors, please, not E for Elder.) It’s less a matter of “write what you know” as “make use of what you know” then twist it out of true.
(via petermorwood)
or, as I tell my students, “write what you know” doesn’t mean write narrowly, it means learn broadly. Shove your brain full of things on a daily basis, so when you need them, they’ve had time to meld with everything else, and make what you write your own.
(via suricattus)
bioluminescent-obscurity liked this
shxpr-gay reblogged this from theamazingmrcat
theamazingmrcat reblogged this from putris-et-mulier
peachy-panpan liked this
sooooootiiireddd liked this mylovingdefect liked this
cloudbankleviathan liked this mikeisthricedeceased liked this
infinitetrigger-uw reblogged this from deadpool-scar-bro yourg4mem4sterth3whit3r4bbit liked this
xazz reblogged this from deadpool-scar-bro
xaz-fr liked this
senka-seren liked this
deadpool-scar-bro reblogged this from putris-et-mulier
its-actually-withered liked this
immoralq reblogged this from putris-et-mulier suave-savant reblogged this from misterrockett
suave-savant liked this
whenyouwishuponapornstar reblogged this from putris-et-mulier
saimne liked this
jaywritesrps liked this misterrockett reblogged this from putris-et-mulier
oscarwitt reblogged this from putris-et-mulier
fromagebonbon liked this
ynad-77 liked this kamkong liked this
midnight-party-gremlin liked this
januaryjames1957 reblogged this from putris-et-mulier
al-moocow liked this
satanshammer liked this
lemurnoises liked this
chaosdreamingsiren reblogged this from putris-et-mulier
chaosdreamingsiren liked this thefoulbeast liked this
putris-et-mulier reblogged this from genoshaisforlovers
lala-lovesie reblogged this from fuckitfireeverything
lallakhansa reblogged this from operakitten alpinx liked this
marie-laureleblanc liked this
afternoonblushes reblogged this from thenarator
lexdura reblogged this from lexdura
da-mage liked this
amorphousturtle liked this
atsa-writing reblogged this from wavingmyfreakflag
mercyshepard reblogged this from dr-ladybird kiran-wears-science-blues liked this
poststoshowmybf reblogged this from dr-ladybird
maskydoo-main liked this charlie-b-t liked this
maxkirin posted this
- Show more notes