My high school English teacher said 'write what you know' and I hated it for years

Mrs. Patterson told our sophomore class back in 2007 that we should stick to personal experiences for our short stories. I thought it was boring advice so I wrote a fantasy epic about a dragon rider instead. Got a C- and a note saying my dialogue sounded like a video game manual. Took me until last year to realize she was right when I finally wrote a story about my summer working at a car wash and it got picked up by a small lit mag. Anyone else have a teacher whose advice aged better than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisar141mo ago

My cousin's teacher told him the same thing and he spent ten years writing fantasy novels nobody read before he finally tried writing about his job fixing air conditioners.

oscar_hunt611mo ago

Write what you know" sounds like lousy advice until you try writing about a dragon's mortgage rate... then suddenly your car wash memoir looks pretty good.