Write What You Know?

Joe F: "I've always though that the advice given to young writers--'Write what you know' to be misplaced. They should write 'what they WANT to know.' Then do the research and write...."

I was discouraged from writing by the former advice, and might have appreciated yours. Write what I know? Write from experience? I was a nothing with no experience. So I thought. I was in awe of young writers who seemed worldly and experienced.

Today, I think, what I knew then was dysfunctional families, decaying relationships, and the nobility and struggles of small town life in the mid-20th Century. Nobody would want to read about such pedestrian stuff.