I often hear this advice on internet forums and in person.

“Write what you know.”

It’s great if you’d like to write something, and don’t know where to start. But it’s really sh*tty advice if that’s all you’re going to do. Don’t write what you know. Write what you’d like to know, what you’d like to read, what you’d like the world to know.

Write a book that hasn’t been written yet. Write a book about ideas that are worth repeating. Write about the world. Research. Ask your characters how they...