The write what you know writing advice is so well known and repeated it’s a cliche. It’s often dismissed as worn out and antiquated thanks to research being so much easier with our current level of technology (I grew up in the 80s and used a rotary phone. Wheee! Fun times). The thing is, write what you know doesn’t mean technical know-how to me. Anyone can research police procedure, medical facts, and rocket science, that stuff is easy. It’s the people stuff that’s hard to write if you’ve never lived it yourself. People stuff? Definition: People stuff – A mixture of psychology and life experience, including but not limited to: personality, traumas, successes, failures, deaths, injuries, odd relatives, first car, first love, betrayals, jobs, major life events (good and bad), etc… All of that and a lot more shapes our attitudes, understanding, and actions. It allows us to create a variety of characters who feel three-dimensional and alive. Every writer writes what they know, what they’ve lived through and have come to understand. Every writer has a personal theme that appears in every story they write. Mine is a combination of Protector and Healing. My stories are about characters who…