'Write what you know' - sometimes this is taken too far.

The whole ‘write what you know’ phrase is, in my opinion, sometimes taken WAY out of context. Some people take it too literally as in you MUST have experienced that thing to write about it. The reason I’m writing this? I once wrote a story set on a cruise. I’ve never been on a cruise before so I did some research. Asked friends, family, went to public forums. The latter is my biggest mistake! I got absolutely blasted from other writers saying I had no right to write something I knew nothing about. I had the ‘write what you know’ thrown at me many times. This bothered me so much because they offered me no reasons just that I was wrong. My opinion is, in order to know something, you don’t have to experience it. You can research it too. Why is that so wrong? This has been a pet peeve of mine for ages. I mean, people write historical novels all the time. As far as I know, there’s no one alive who lived in regency times! Anyway, I’m only posting this because I’d love to know what you fellow writers also think of this. And, hey, if you disagree and that ‘write what you know’ should be taken literally, that’s totally fine but I’d like to know why. ETA: just for the record, my cruise story actually turned out really well in the end.

The whole ‘write what you know’ phrase is, in my opinion, sometimes taken WAY out of context. Some people take it too literally as in you MUST have experienced that thing to write about it. The reason I’m writing this? I once wrote a story set on a cruise. I’ve never been on a cruise before so I did some research. Asked friends, family, went to public forums. The latter is my biggest mistake! I got absolutely blasted from other writers saying I had no right to write something I knew nothing about. I had the ‘write what you know’ thrown at me many times. This bothered me so much because they offered me no reasons just that I was wrong. My opinion is, in order to know something, you don’t have to experience it. You can research it too. Why is that so wrong? This has been a pet peeve of mine for ages. I mean, people write historical novels all the time. As far as I know, there’s no one alive who lived in regency times! Anyway, I’m only posting this because I’d love to know what you fellow writers also think of this. And, hey, if you disagree and that ‘write what you know’ should be taken literally, that’s totally fine but I’d like to know why. ETA: just for the record, my cruise story actually turned out really well in the end.

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