I don't build worlds. I steal them.

Write what you know, is the most basic piece of vice authors are willing to hand out to their fans. Luckily enough for us, writing what we know can be helpful. We all have had our own experiences in the world and no two will ever be alike. If I were to sit back and think about what I know there’s a lot of darkness from my past.

I know what it’s like to almost die.

I know what it feels like to collect your heart that’s been shattered into a million pieces.

I know what it feels like to have infection eat your bone and have said infection drained.

I know what it’s like to have your cousin’s murderer pass out at your feet at your cousin’s funeral.

I’m not sure why my mind goes all doom and gloom when I think about what I know. I guess you could say I’m pessimistic at times. When I think about ‘what I know’ my mind wanders.

I had a friend who worked hard trying to answer that question when working on a novel. She found the question she really needed to answer was “what do you know little about and what do you want to know about?”

In her case, it was the afterlife and demons. She did research and came up with her own conclusion on the subject. She then took that information and wrote a book. For everything we know, there’s always something that we don’t know. She built her story from ideas in the world, built on her own foundation.

For example:

I want to know more about theatre in New York.
I know about love.
I know about love triangles.

Thus, I’m writing a love triangle story, based at a theatre in NYC that I have visited a few times.

The characters will live/play around in places I have visited and places I haven’t. We’re lucky to have tools like Google Maps, web searches and so on to really help us bring our visions to life.

Now if you’re a fantasy nerd, building your own world, you’re kind of screwed there.

God, I’m the lone wolf here, aren't I?