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Write what you know? Or what you imagine?
Authors are often told to ‘write about what you know’. Despite that sounding easy, it isn’t. Writing about your own life can seem dull, prosaic and boring. And if it’s not like that, if your life is either really exciting, fulfilling and wonderful, or actually quite awful, you probably don’t have time or a wish to write about it. (Or are waiting to do your autobiography in later life?)
Some writers have definitely used parts of their life experience to create fiction, and it is particularly interesting when those writers are writing crime fiction. The majority of crime writers are, of course, not criminals writing about crimes they have committed. There are some exceptions, and they are interesting to read about, but it’s not definitely to the norm.
Crime writers may use real crime stories for inspiration, which is a good way to see how the perpetrator got caught, or if they ever got caught. Aside from that, other famous crime writers used their experience in a particular field. Here’s a couple of examples.
