So with my novel, should I just write what I know?

I was talking to a friend who was dying to write a novel. ‘Here you go, you’ve done writing,’ she says, 'listen to this.' And before long I’ve heard just how she’s itching to script that random chapter based on the best ever holiday romance kiss when she just got happier and happier and happier all summer long. She seemed to think she’d live it all again by writing it down and that I’d be happy to read it afterwards.

‘Anyone can write a novel. You just write what you know,’ she says.

She’s not the only one. It’s tempting to think that - even comforting, I guess. But surely you can't just write your memories - or your fantasies - or a rubbish version of the last book you read - even though these are three of the things you know best.

We have memories and fantasies galore and they blot and splash and make pretty patchworks all through our sleeping and waking minds. They're not stories.

Story has structure. Really satisfying story has a really satisfying structure. It needs to be learnt. It's not just something inside that you already know.

There is something important about what you know, though. We all want to read books by someone who’s got an interesting point of view on something we might have experienced ourselves. Or some deeper detail. We also get a kick if someone has two things they know quite well and can bring them together in fascinating ways. The trick is to mould what you know through the art of story.

So, maybe writing what you know doesn't mean the stuff you know off the top of your head. More likely it’s the things you know deeper down, things that take a bit of thinking through. Things that take a bit of pairing up. Honest things. In fact, those are exactly the sorts of things that story gets to best. As long as you’ve learnt how to tease it skilfully into life.

In which case, yes, what you know can be great to build into a story. But the story won't just be great because it's built from what you know.

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