Most of the time the best writing is produced from experience.
“Most of the time the best writing is produced from experience.”
Most writers draw from their own experience to some degree. Dashiell Hammett’s past as a Pinkerton detective gives his mystery stories their ring of authenticity.
But it would be hard to argue that Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe or HP Lovecraft actually lived the dark events that were the subject of their stories. That was all imagination, ghost stories writ large. Even Russell Kirk was proud of his ghost stories.