Writers don't write about people they know. They write what they know about people.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
A writer doesn't write about just anything. He writes about things he has an affinity for.
You write about what you know.
I don't understand how you can be a decent writer and not know people.
Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.
If you want to write about people, you can make it up. But if you spend time talking to someone and examining what it is you want to write about, you discover a level of detail that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise.
It's a bit cliche, but you can't go wrong by writing what you know. Even if you're a horrible writer, your own knowledge and experience is unrivaled. Nobody knows what you know like you know what you know. The way you see things is pretty unique.
I didn't know anything about writers. It never occurred to me they were regular people and that I could grow up to become one, even though I loved to make up stories inside my head.
All I write about is what's happened to me and to people I know, and the better I know them, the more likely they are to be written about.
I think that fiction writers can write about anyone. If you are writing a character, and the only thing they are to you is their otherness, then you haven't written a character.
Obviously, a writer can't know everything about what she writes. It's impossible.