"Write what you know", they say. It's never really worked for me.

I recently watch the 2010 film 'Howl' after reading Ginsberg's poem a few days before. His honesty, his personal perception of his post-war word, the inclusion of his friends and his portrayal of the interest and contemplation he invested in their lives, not just his own - these are all things that resulted in me loving the poem. The dialogue of in the film was, as far as I know, predominantly taken from Ginsberg's many letters and interviews. It includes a number of phrases on how he 'wrote what he knew', and it wasn't exactly simple. He drew a lot of influence from simply looking around him, trying to identify with random objects and such. I can barely remember what point I was going to make from this! I think it was that to 'write what you know' isn't something that is always easy. In my opinion, as much contemplation, soul searching and thought hunting can be as necessary as the research needed when writing what you dont know. Both can result in stunning work when the vital effort is put in.

"I find that there's nothing harder than making an event/events from my life into something with a beginning,a middle and a satisfying conclusion." I agree with that so much. So if I decide to write something personal, I usually go in with an idea of what I want to get across with the piece, and just write. No thinking, no planning, just words. Sometimes it's a mess, and no one ever reads it. Sometimes it can come out cohesively enough that I can edit it together. Every now and then it needs nothing, and is fine one its own. The whole "not thinking" thing also keeps it from being… well, I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. But if I think about writing personal things they come out weird. It's much better for me to take my head out of it and let my heart guide my hand.

Yep! Agree with all the above 'cos I'm going on my holidays today!!!

One of my all-time favourite authors said, "Write what you WANT to know". He did a great deal of research for his book as he was writing it.

Hi well-wisher, I am going to limit my comment to poetry, because that what I read, so I just had to go and read that poem about the fire mentioned by verdana, and very good it is too, I think it's strength is in the immediacy of it, it's real, you wrote how you saw it and I saw it too, What I'm trying to say is, yes, it's important to get some facts right -what you know- but it's more important to write what you KNOW...what it feels like, looks like, to YOU, does that make sense? You say, 'I find that there's nothing harder than making an event/events from my life into something with a beginning,a middle and a satisfying conclusion.' Life, as I know it, is seldom like that. find what's in your heart and write it down, as raw and gutsy as you can. BTY, I also enjoyed 'pigeon religion' the image of the pigeons genuflecting is superb.

My dad wrote his autobiography in chapters, such as 'early days', 'school', 'finding a job', 'marriage' etc. The only boring bit was the biggest chapter where he went into (too much) detail of his working life. I'm writing mine on much the same lines but trying to avoid the trap of writing too much detail about anything!

Hello W-W, Giving writing advice is tricky. My older friend, Toronto poet Raymond Souster, with 35 published print books to his name, gave me this advice years ago, regarding my poetry. "Dick, I will not tell you what you did wrong, but I'll tell you what I like." From my writing years, I have learned to spot my mistakes, as Ray said I would. Now I tell writers---write and revise only when the first draft is completed. I have had professional editors critique some of my work and they ripped and shredded the soul out of my story. So now I simply figure out my own punctuation. An analogy is---when my last adopted son joined our family, we had oodles of problems. A psychiatrist told us we should stop listening to all the advice from Children's Aid and other Resources, because none of their advice worked in his particular case. The psychiatrist said in most cases, those who live with the child in question, know more about what works and what doesn't. In any case, you are a good writer, very prolific, and remember not everything you write need to turn out to be a masterpiece. But then, why not? All the best, from Richard LP

Richard, it's very comforting to hear that a published poet gave you such advice. I used to use a poetry forum where the members would destroy your poem, with seemingly no regard for the soul and heart of the piece. In short, if it wasn't written in a certain way, then you were no poet. No thought was given to the author's ability to choose his use of language/punctuation/poetic device. I often wondered why they were so harsh, and if they even dreamed of doing the same to published pieces. I stopped using the forum when i read 'you can only move up from the beginner's forum when you make the changes to your poem that are advised by the moderators'. abctales is the complete opposite, and without this site, my confidence as a writer would still be shot. Thanks to all abctalers!

I honestly cannot remember, it was that long ago. Perhaps my mind has erased the trauma from my memory, haha. For all I know, it may not be so bad now - it may not even exist! I'll have a think and a search to see if I can find it.

May it have been Poetry Free-For-All? It seems very similar to what you described. At the top of the site it has a message that reads: "WARNING! We're mean. We're nasty. We're merciless. We're cruel. We're vile. We're heartless. We'll slash your soul to ribbons. We're an evil clique conspiring to annihilate your self-esteem. Ready?" And they have tiered forums and will move your post to lower tiers if they don't like it.

It wasn't that forum, no. It was slightly more inconspicuous, luring you in and then taking you down, haha. That one sounds utterly ridiculous. I can't imagine who would want to sign up to it!

This is an excellent thread and one I hope to contribute more to later when I'm not using my footery phone. I think writing what you know is a good starting point for any writer, but adding imagination and creativity will enhance any piece of writing.