One, Two, Three, and S-T-R-E-T-C-H

The usual advice to fledgeling authors is to write about what you know, to draw upon the emotional truth of your own experience and translate it into fiction.  But it ain't necessarily so.  If you stick too literally to this tenet, you run the risk of achieving something closer to reproduction than the pure act of creation.  So, for once, throw caution to the winds. Have a go at writing something as far from your own sphere of reference as you possibly can.  Put yourself into completely alien shoes, spend some time walking around in them and discover how it feels.  It doesn't matter if you locate your story in the 10th century or on Jupiter, as long as you boldly go (!) By flexing your creative muscles in this way, you will stretch your imagination and you may find that when you retreat back to your comfort zone, your writing is the richer for it...