WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOU ... NOOOOO!! Sherry Ashworth One of the most puzzling pieces of advice I was ever given came from an editor some years ago. Think of the book you’d like to read, she said, and write that! Even now, as I type those words, my head spins. What kind of books do I like to read? Books that tell me something I didn’t know before. Novels set in countries I’ve never been to. Characters that have the type of personalities that I’ve never explored until now. A set of circumstances I’ve never met, or a situation that has never occurred to me. For example, one of my top reads recently was Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex , which ticks all of the above boxes. Also, the editor’s advice seemed to conflict with that age-old writer’s mantra – write about what you know. If I know about something – if I know about something VERY well – I might be an authorit...