Jack of Harts

The bit about writing stories that most people don’t really see is how much of yourself goes into every story you write.

There’s a saying about “writing what you know” and that’s more accurate than some think. It’s just about impossible to write something you don’t know or have a basic understanding of. Which is why so many writers who have magical stories will create rules about how magic works. Because even with the make believe, you have to know what you are writing or you can’t do it. And very few people in the world can write truly abstractly and have something come out in the end that is readable.

If the writing is too abstract, people won’t be interested. If it is too crazy, they will lose the plot. And as usual, there are different ranges. Some people like a bit more crazy, and some people like reading a bit more rules.

I like reading stories about prepared and trained men doing things that need doing. And some people like horror stories where unprepared people get dragged into circumstances where the things that go bump in the night scare them half to death. And I like to write stories about the people who hunt the things that go bump in the night. Because there always has to be the people prowling around the campfire, keeping the monsters at bay so everyone else can sleep.

There is a range of stories people read and love, and we have to write for the one we choose. But there are many things we haven’t written that we could if we wanted to.