I can write what I don’t know

I can spit out a research paper use an AI app plagiarize media abundant

I can ghost write in another’s voice

convince you of something I don’t believe

even write a sonnet

if I have to

but

that’s not writing

that’s telling selling inauthenticity

which has its place in academia commerce Prose challenges

but

write about reaching the summit of Everest

giving birth

a bipolar manic episode

laying tired tangled after sweltering sex

watching a parent die feeling life leave their hand in yours

sure you can imagine research pretend borrow fake it

but that’s not writing

not authentic authorship

that’s typing words to fill space complete a task.

Writing

the stuff of lasting integrity and pride

for me

comes only from those things I know

understand felt deeply suffered through found ecstasy in almost killed me

but lived to tell it because something in the experience of it all

every bit autobiographical in origin

wouldn't leave my soul alone to sleep

swirling stomping howling

it needed to be told written kept dispersed shared

and the urgency fell to me

to try.

I know no other way.

oh, my god, now you tell me?!?!?!

why keep it a secret for so long.

all this time i was writing about peoples emotions, about what they think, what they want and dream, and how they feel about things. it was all based on an assumption that my own , being so alien, can be approximated by stuff i read. i was working so hard to blend in, to change my camouflage by covering up with this pseudo-human dribble...AND NOW YOU TELL ME IT DOESN'T WORK?!?!?!

The entire foundation for the concept of wisdom is in knowing what you don’t know. It's wisdom that tells you, if you don't know how to fly a plane, stay the hell out of the cockpit.

While I can still have a conversation about what I think it would be like to be a pilot, I can't reasonably imagine it without having experienced operating a large vehicle, looking out a window at a horizon, and having the responsibility of not crashing.

I could imagine a far off planet, but to describe the colors of horsacs or the sounds the molfors make, I could only draw from those I'd seen and heard before.

Can I write what I do not know? Sure. ¥€|¤, for instance. Ask me what that is and I'll tell you, I have no clue, but writing means nothing without actually communicating with a reader, so to truly write, I cannot share words to which I do not know the meaning.

You can write about anything, with the proper research. Of course writing what you know is easier, but it shouldn't limit you in your writing. Branch out, read, learn. If you don't know something, you should look it up rather than omitting it. If you want to be a better writer, then you should better yourself.

What do I truly know?

That I exist because I think

Everything else must be speculation.

So yes, I write what I wish I knew

I wish that I could be sure that my memories have happened

That I will go to exotic climes and places

That heartbreak can be resolved neatly

All I can be sure of is that I right now am alive

Clutching every second, drowning in time.

So my writing is the result of a human forcing herself to believe in her memories.

All that I write is what I don't know

I write what I want. The knowledge, in my opinion, should come later.

Take, for example, my recent novel, which involves a long stay at a mental hospital. I have never been in a mental hospital (whether I should be in one or not is an entirely different argument). All I know about them is the dramatized versions in pop culture, and some scraps I found after a quick jaunt through the internet.

Is my writing accurate? Probably not. Definitely not. I am writing about something that I don't know.

But I wrote it anyway: proof that you can, technically, write what you don't know. I can write about mental hospitals.

The real question is, did I do it well?

The answer to that is, probably not. It's probably deeply flawed.

Here's the fun part: that's okay.

It doesn't matter if my view of mental hospitals is warped beyond recognition.

That's what editing is for.

Whatever glaring misconceptions exist in my first draft (or, in this case, my third draft) can be corrected in the fourth draft. Or the fifth. Or the sixth. Revision is a lengthy process. Editors exist to help you write what you don't know.

If you're writing something, and you don't know it, that's okay. Write it anyway. Then, find someone who does know it, and go from there.

You can write what you don't know. But if you want it to be good, don't be surprised if you have to learn after you write it.

From the moment we are born we know absolutely nothing. It is only through teaching that we learn.

Our parents taught us to eat, walk, form sounds to form words. Our teachers taught us everything from reading to writing, mathematics, science, history and so much more.

We’ve learned about relationships from family, friends, bosses, coworkers, people we’ve dated and/or married, plus every other person that exists in our worlds.

I know I consider it a wasted day if I don’t learn at least one new thing, it doesn’t matter what it is.

Learning is a necessity, but also a desire for many of us. It’s what drives us to be better people, better storytellers and writers.

So, I believe that this statement is untrue, we can research and learn anything about any subject. In the end, it is up to us, but you can write about what’s familiar or what’s not, all it takes is the desire to learn.

What can I say, would you even believe it? I can tell you the feeling of holding someone while their last breath leaves their body, but I can't tell you what he felt. I lived a long life, but I can't tell you how to make it through unscathed. I know what it's like to taste danger, but I can't figure out where that part of me went. Did it ever exist? I don't know. Can I ever find my innocent self again? Probably not, but who knows.

If writing is defined as something that requires understanding, people cannot truly write what they don't "know". That is, unless they are deliberately lying, but even that requires some knowledge of the truth.

Of course, people can "write" about something they don't truly understand, but can what they are writing truly be considered writing? I think not. Complete nonsense or mere regurgitation of true writing is nothing but that.

Now, if you really think about it, nobody actually "knows" anything. What is true one moment can become false in an instance, not to mention there may be no way of knowing whether it was true in the first place. Taking this notion into consideration, my initial claim suggests that people cannot truly write anything at all. Therefore, in order for my claim to be true... "knowledge" must be defined as something that people can either believe or have the ability to imagine with a certain level of understanding. Whether it is true or not is irrelevant. The mere thought of something is enough to be considered "knowledge", and mere thoughts are what become ideas that can be translated into words, and perhaps eventually converted into writing.

The core of writing is thought. Without it, there is no writing.

Whether the thought is conscious or not is a different matter. A person can write anything without having consciously processed any of it.

For instance, I haven't the faintest idea what I have written just now; this prompt is far beyond me.

You can write what you do not know or experience. I've never been in love, but I can tell the story of what I imagine falling to feel like. Writing is not always your own trauma and expertise - sometimes a writer's job is to give power to the people who cannot speak. Limiting a person's work to only the known ruining the what if tells and unfortunate desires. I can write for days about the heartbreak i experience when I was 14 and you would never know it was a lie but I bet my words would still water up your eyes. You can write about what you do not know because maybe it'll give you the courage to take the stuff out and learn.