“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupery
This advice comes under the admonition of “write what you know”. Some of the best and worst advice aspiring writers ever receive.
When you are told to “write what you know” it is always difficult to discern what exactly that means.
Perhaps you need to engage the reader with more emphasis on relating your personal experience with emotional issues. Sadness, joy, anger, revulsion. Any of these emotions are felt in the core and should be transferable to the page.
For Example: anger,
Jolie’s shoulders tensed, apprehension ripping through her. Her clenched hands dropped to her sides, the fists so tight her nails in the palms almost drew blood. Why didn’t people listen to her?
Can you see it in your mind’s eye how angry she is? Have you ever been there? Standing in front of someone you disagree with, and who is not listening to your input, and your anger takes on this physical aspect?
Or how about revulsion, ending in physical pain
Her fingers, twisted and arthritic, removed the cloth from the box. Mesmerized, the memory fleeting beyond her grasp, she pulled the drawer open at the base of the cabinet and memory flooded her like a landslide.
She groaned.
The horrific cold of a thousand dead hands assaulted her, astounding her, stealing her breath. For a moment, she thought she simply forgot to breathe. Then the pain exploded in her chest. A hundred blades of precision surgical steel knifing into her heart and radiating out to her shoulder and jaw. She struggled to take in air. Clutching, reaching for her son, she toppled the tea-table.
I’ll bet you have. I’m going to go out on a limb and bet you know exactly what the author means, when they write she was angry. That’s telling, and when the author shows you the characters physical reaction to something that happens “on stage” in the story, that’s writing what you know.
Translating your emotion into words on the page, sadness, desire, longing, and any other emotions we are all privy to, is the essence of writing what you know.