A Majorly Great Writing Lesson

I didn't think of it myself; a writer friend of mine figured it out, then shared it with me.

"It's not 'write what you know,'" she told me. "It's 'write what you love.'"

At first I thought, that can't be right. Everybody knows you can only write accurately about something that you've lived through or experienced firsthand.

But then I realized something: I can tell, when I'm reading a book, whether the author loved what s/he was writing. And when authors do love what they write, those books are the ones that sweep me up and take me into their world. And it's true that when I write something I don't love, I get bored and quit. Whereas if I love what I'm working on, I get in a frenzy to learn all I can about how a football player's hip pads are attached, or how much blood a vampire can drink before his victim passes out. If I love my story, I'm only happy when I'm immersed in the same world that my characters live in.

So it turns out my friend was 100% right.

Which imaginary worlds or characters do you love?

A. M. Jenkins
Author of Beating Heart: A Ghost Story