I am a big fan of comic books and graphic novels. If you haven't really ever read them, I suggest you do so. Now. Like stop reading this and go purchase a few. They combine good writing and good art, what else could you want? Don't believe me? The graphic novel Watchmen was named by Time magazine as one of the top 100 novels of the last 100 years!
I have a large collection of comic books, mostly Wonder Woman, all of the Tomb Raider series, and several other runs of various comics. One of my favorite comic book writers is Gail Simone. She has written the aforementioned Wonder Woman and Tomb Raider, as well as several others, including (but not limited to) Red Sonja, Birds of Prey, and Batgirl.
I bring all this up because my favorite piece of writing advice came from Ms. Simone. She once said on Twitter (she's a Twitter goddess), "'Write what you know' is terrible advice. But 'Use what you know in your writing', is pretty good advice." I couldn't agree more. It's not only good advice, but liberating as well.
If we only wrote what we knew, we could never have stories about dragons, or Mars, or evil queens, because none of us have experience with those things. But we might know a bit about reptiles, or rockets, or castles, and we can certainly use that to inform our characters and settings when we write about dragons, or Mars, or evil queens..
I use what I know about archaeology, nursing, swimming, etc in my writing all of the time. But they're never the main focus of my books because I don't like writing nonfiction, and I like a bit of magical realism in my books. So don't let the fact that you have never seen a goblin keep you from writing about one. Maybe you can use your knowledge of shoes to write about his work as a cobbler?
What's the best writing advice you have heard? Let me know in the comments. Keep reading (seriously, add some comic books/graphic novels to your TBR) and keep writing!

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