Blog what you (don't) know

"Write what you know" is, proverbially, advice to writers of fiction seeking authenticity. Don't write a police procedural without first learning something about police procedure. ¶ 

It's good advice, and might apply to other communications projects too. But journalists and story tellers do not need to be subject-matter experts about anything other their craft.

That is what makes this job fun.

Write to explore

Sure, write what you know. But to keep things interesting, to grow, and to expand the reach of your work, use writing (and photography or video or podcasts, if those are your media) to add to what you know, too.

Blogs are great for these kinds of projects. For my part, I hope to learn from this one.

We tell stories about things like science and poverty and economic scarcities and racism, sometimes quoting experts but rarely professing expertise ourselves.

We write not to promote ourselves but on behalf of causes and organizations.

Some topics are so big that, maybe, nobody has a handle on the whole thing.

This isn't a license to sound off on topics without taking the time to learn about them. Rather, we can learn enough to tell stories with integrity. 

Not every question I ask here will be rhetorical. If you have thoughts, I hope you'll share them in comments.

Your level of subject-matter expertise, great or small, will grow when you write about it. 

That is what storytelling does, and why we love doing it.

photo: pexels/pixabay