Number one most popular piece of writing advice for newbies: write what you know. I can't tell you how many times people have told me that. It's an idea that's ingrained into my mind so firmly that I will never be able to venture out of what I know without very briefly going, "But I don't know what I'm doing!" 


That advice? Forget it. Or - don't forget it - but take it very lightly. Writing fiction is simply bullshitting your way through a story, and maybe if you bullshit it well enough, people will buy into it and go along for the ride. 


I'm not saying the advice is completely off. Write things that are familiar to you, write about your passions, a theme that's important to you, and it will come easier. In fact, I don't think any writer could write something they're not passionate about. Too much goes into it. But write what you know is too limiting. We don't know anything, in the grand scheme of things. Your life and experiences - what you know - is such a pathetically tiny part of what there is. The world is much bigger than you can take in.

When I first started writing, creating characters who acted outside of my comfort zone was a big issue for me, I think partly, because that rule was always in the back of my mind. Characters who lived a life that I didn't personally know, characters who acted in ways that were irrational to me - I didn't exactly know what to do with them.

Therefore, I had very flat characters.

How do I write a character who has sex? I hadn't had sex; I didn't know. How do I write a character skydiving? I'd never skydived. A story set in New York? A character who hopped to school on her left foot every day?

Right, you get my point. My characters were really damn boring. They didn't do any of that stuff, and really, who wants to read a story if it doesn't involve sex and skydiving over New York ... while ... hopping to school ...

I think the way I overcame that issue was just practice. A lot of crappy two-dimensional characters. A lot of stories put on the shelves. Realizing that I could try different things, let different characters take the spotlight, and if it didn't work - what did it matter? Learning that I could research something and then act like I knew what I was talking about. Meeting people - that's a big one - knowing people from every different situation in life, talking to them, trying to understand. Not understanding and realizing that's okay. Putting all that into practice. Letting the character take the front seat. Learning how to listen to the character.

My advice: write what you love. Write that story that's in your head, hammering to get out. Don't let anything restrict you. Research. Talk to people. Go camp out in that I-don't-believe-in-ghosts-but-that-house-is-definitely-haunted house you pass by every day so you can properly describe the ghost-house your characters will stumble into in chapter five.

- Sarah