Have you ever taken on a writing project only to leave it halfway?
Or you’ve started a project that you but got overwhelmed during the research phase?
Do you have tons of half-written material you’d like to publish one day?
If any of these questions resonate with you then you’re not alone. This happens to most writers.
After a lot of years, I realised why it happens to us. It’s not that we don’t want to keep writing or we’re lazy. It’s that we cannot write when we do not have any idea about it. Not just the idea, but even a basic level of knowledge.
One day it clicked for me.
Whenever I had issues with writing or I didn’t feel like sitting down to write it was when I had no idea about the topic. Other times when I did have an idea, it didn’t take me time to sit and write. I’d stop procrastinating altogether.
This brings me to why we should write what we know about.
But first, a bit of background
This isn’t the first time I have decided to write a novel. I’d say this is the fourth time.
But this time it’s different.
I know that because of the Scrivener file I have dedicated to my cozy mystery project. All the other times, I wasn’t clear what I wanted to write about. Sure, I knew what genre it would be about but only that. Anything else beyond that, I could not develop.
Looking back now I know why that happened.
It was because I was trying to write about things I didn’t know anything about. Also, things I didn’t know enough about.
For example, having read one fantasy fiction book I decided to write fantasy. What I didn’t realise was that you should write things that you have read multiple times and not just once.
It just makes life easier.
Stick to what you know, at least in the beginning
When it came to writing cozy the planning process happened quickly for me. The main delay in the planning process is more about the process itself. Learning and implementing take more time than getting to work without any delay. I am sure this will help me when I write other books in the series.
This comes to show how we should stick to writing what we know. At least, at first.
By all means, feel free to branch out if you’re up for a challenge. But sometimes it’s better to start with what one knows.
Writing cozy for me has been better because I’ve read and watched cozies. I understand what the whole thing is about. I don’t have to spend time researching and learning everything from scratch. The time I save there can help me move my project forward.
So, whether it’s your first time writing or you’ve been writing for long, it’s good to know what you are writing about. And in case you do not then take some time to learn about it or research.
I now understand why one should write what one knows about, at least at the start of the journey.