The reason to “write what you know”
Write what you’ve lived.
Passion and motivation accrue when your writing something you believe to be. Your lived experience is a powerful tool that gives you insight where few others have it. Because each life is different and everyone is slightly different, we come at things from different perspectives.
People read to find insight about human nature.
That’s why fiction and memoirs sell as well as they do.
Share what you know better than anybody else.
People want truth, and truth comes from life. The life you’ve lived means something no matter how you’ve repackaged it.
Fiction shows a truth about life by changing the situation.
Making the facts stand out like they never could in real life. Sometimes real life can do that too.
You can’t choose your life
You sure can choose characters, a setting, and a plot that shows your truth.
Writing on Medium (where this originally appeared)
Personal stories of facing adversity do really well. That’s the focus of Medium at this point. Fiction is hidden in some back corner.
People come here for stories about people changing
Being true to yourself does really great here, because the community is supportive in a way few places are across the web. Medium is growing a lot still. That has to mean something. Sharing stories of life, of your truth bring people to you. That’s the story Medium tells us.
That’s a formula many prolific writers on Medium employ.
They write personal stories and other types of posts like poetry, fiction, thought pieces, and interviews. Like Meg, Abby Norman, and E Price — the examples I remember off the top of my head.
Put your truth out there and people will come.
GK
Girish Karthikeyan 