Is a Niche in Writing That Important?

Just 265 words today. Let's talk about "writing what you know."

“Do I need to find a niche?”

Writers ask me this all the time.

I usually answer “no” but there’s a bit more to it than that.

I’ll get to why soon, but first let me tell you a story…

I was bedridden with Crohn’s Disease and all of my meals were delivered through a straw.

My liquid diet kept me alive, barely upright, but alive!

I could hardly lift my head off the pillow. But I could wiggle my fingers and write.

And THAT?

That’s where my writing career began: in bed, drinking brown wonder-shake meals.

As you can imagine, I needed an easy niche for my tired brain.

So I used the common advice: “write what you know”. I wrote about parenting and education: what I knew.

That became my career for the next 10 years.

I love the write what you know advice.

It launches careers. It writes books. It helps us be effective, faster writers, and become known as experts in our fields—

and that’s why I can’t easily answer “no” to niches.

A niche in writing has bonuses.

BUT…

it’s limiting. And creative humans? We get bored by limitations.

We push and resist and want creative freedom!

Eventually, you’ll find you’re so over your niche that it will kill your desire to write.

That’s not okay. It’s not writing that’s the issue. It’s the niche!

So, should we niche?

“Yes”: develop a few specialty areas and find your feet. Get established.

And then once you’ve found your voice: “No”. Write whatever you want to in your own way. Your readers will love the variety.

Happy writing

Kelly xx

P.S. Did you see how great the new Substack app looks? I love it!