As for....

[Paul Whybrow]

"As for ‘Write what you know,' I was regularly told this as a beginner. I think it's a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets, dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know them better than anybody else possibly could, so it's my duty to testify about them."

Ursula K. Le Guin

 

[Hannah F]

It's a good point though. Make sure you know your world and your characters well enough to write about it/them.

 

[E G Logan]

True.

I could name a 'thriller' trilogy, allegedly best-selling, set in France and Italy, where I, from local knowledge, can say it's clear the author hadn't been in at least some of the locations in person.

For example, she moors a huge gin palace in an admittedly beautiful setting where it is far from deep enough! From photographs, she would have seen other boats there – but she should have noted none of them was larger than a small sailing yacht. The deep-water harbour is round the promontory, in a different village.

It made me dubious about the rest of her descriptions. And it was a 'How Not To' lesson.