Answer: Nope. If you write what you don’t know it rings false, and that transfers directly to the page, and the reader will always pick up on it.
To correct some misconceptions:
- How many submarines did Jules Verne ride in? None. But he was intimately familiar with the French submarine experimenters of the time – including the submarine “Le Plongeur” designed and built by Simon Bourgeois and Charles Brun, which (gee, coincidentally enough…) just happened to be around for seven years before 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was published, and which Verne actually saw when he was writing the story.
- Fiction isn’t about “what you don’t know” at all. It’s about storytelling. Good storytellers write what they know. They always have, they always will.
- Those who claim you should write what you don’t know – using the “crusading knights” and “dragons” and “space travel” and all the Hogwarts stuff doesn’t exist argument – clearly don’t understand storytelling. A story isn’t about the inner workings of hyperdrive, the quantum physics of a witch’s spell, the anatomy of a dragon or any of that ancillary ‘color.’ A good story is about heroes and villains and love and hate and human emotion. THAT is what good storytellers always write about; they write what they know.
From John Stewart, Cal4Wheel Natural Resources Consultant:
Weott, Calif. — California State Parks will hold an open house meeting to solicit comments on a draft road and trail management plan (RTMP) for Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The RTMP describes the existing roads and trails of the state park and provides specific direction for management and operations in the future. The goal of the plan is to enhance recreational trail opportunities, while protecting the park’s cultural and natural resources.
In partnership with the 
Due to winter storm and flood damage and prioritization of trail repairs including Rainbow Falls, the monument’s 20 site campground is not anticipated to reopen in 2017. We regret any inconvenience, but this delay will allow the park to ensure the safety of our visitors and necessary preservation/restoration of the park’s natural resources impacted by the storm.
