Write What You Don't Know

(I'm currently writing this with a lizard on my shoulder, so forgive any typos)

So, you're looking at the title of this post, going, "Whaaaaaaat?" The conventional wisdom is to write what you know. But this can be extremely limiting. You might be a cranky middle school student, or a seventy year-old. How, then, can you write a teen romance with lots of unicorns? 

An English teacher might tell you to write something else, something you have a personal connection to, like life in middle school or a nursing home. But you really want to write about those teenagers and unicorns. 

Well, I'm here to tell you that you can write that romance, even if you've never seen a unicorn or been a teenager in love. The trick is to use what you do know to write what you don't know. 

You've never fallen in love? Sure you have! You may not have been in love, but you love your family. You love your pets, and your friends. And unicorns are just horses with horns, and rainbows. You can draw on what you know about love for your friends and family to write love between two teens. And you've probably seen one of those sappy horse movies; you can use what you know about those horses to base your unicorns off of. 

So use what you know, and what you don't know, to create great literature. Or just a teen romance novel 😈.