Write what you know vs write what you love vs surprise me

I have thoughts. When don't I?

For a long time, the old creed for authors was "write what you know." But that's limiting in its context. 

It could mean to write about your passions and interests. Leverage your identity and use universal human experiences. 

Which is cool.

Write what you love. This also includes passions and interests. But it may be a bit limiting if you're only true loves are of ballet and basketball. (Great crossover romance, huh?) I feel as though this gives you rules you never asked for.

But is also viable.

Now.

Some of us use a starting point and then go wickedly wherever. There's so much I don't know. And so much I WANT to know. Example: In "Over Her Head", one of my protagonist's neighbors keeps retired horses. And here goes me...looking up horse breeds and common early retirement issues. Treatments used on horses that shouldn't have been. What type of temperament for each breed. I do a deep dive, and I fucking love it.

Bring your emotional depth, of course, but authors can use so much information to enrich their stories. 

I've looked up types of flowers, knives, scorpions, medieval weapons, horses, furniture, houses, barns, ancient deities, book shelves, Christian Siriano Spring 2026 fashion for men, types of fabrics, expensive cars, and so much damn more I don't have the word space to continue.

And I take at least one piece with me as I go. 

It's euphoric. Quick kick of dopamine that feeds this sporadic ADHD brain with all the factoids I can fact.

I don't always know where I'm going (contrary to the "Whitesnake" song), but I sure know where I've been. And it's a gift to be able to utilize so many parts of the world in one book. And I believe it deepens the narrative. 

How exciting to be a connoisseur of some niche subject and find it in a book you're reading! You can always do the grass is green, the sun is yellow, and there will be a happily-ever-after. 

But if you say the grass is a dark evergreen that smelled of earth and hope, then you've pushed a bit farther past the general greetings. You feel me?

It's the little things that make a good book. All the dynamic elements of genres have been laid out in fine print. Authors know the expectations. It's up to us to go farther and push harder. 

Now.

Let me clarify. 

Let's not dive into the minutiae. I don't need to know there is a ladybug on grass blade number three with 62 dots and a bad attitude. Unless, of course, that ladybug is germane to the story.  

You need to use a Kukri, not a machete. But you also don't need a scalpel to scrape all the meat off the bone. 

Fiction requires our readers to use their imaginations. We don't want to force feed them everything. And as a reader, I hate it.

There's your recipe, authors.

Write what you know.

Write what you love.

Start and surprise yourself.

Kukri

No machete

No scalpel

Seems so simple, doesn't it?