Stories From Personal Experience

[KG Christopher]

http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...authors-harry-parker-nadim-safdar-janet-ellis

I had a good read of this article this morning. The story of the amputee is obviously auto-biographical, and a lot of the other entries look like they are based on personal experiences.

My current WIP is a YA fantasy, but one of the characters is most definately based on my own life.

How is your work influenced by your own personal life? Do you have to be an excellent lover to write good romance? and how can you influence a sci-fi novel if you have never been to outer space?

 

[Carol Rose]

We make stuff up. That's what writers do. Sure, most people draw on personal experience, at least in part, but I'm betting J.K. Rowling doesn't have a real wand that does magic. At least now we have the Internet so we can research anything and everything. Try writing back in the days when you had to either own a kick-ass set of encyclopedias, or you took a trip to the library every time you wanted to write about something you had never seen or experienced.

 

[Emurelda]

I can't parkour to save my clumsy self tripping over uneven paving...but i can imagine the feeling of being in motion and pounding those concretes slabs like a hero. I try to put my imaginings more than experience in many cases.

An autobiogrphy is something i would consider as basing my own experience in the future but carol's right most stories give creative licence for authors to go where their imaginations take them.

 

[Carol Rose]

As an example, my current series is set in the years 2124 through 2126. People live in massive underground cities because storms ravaging the earth's surface are unpredictable, unstoppable (thanks to a weather control program gone rogue), and the surface is all but uninhabitable. Now, I've been in storms, but I've never tried to control weather, I've never tried to write code for a program that could control weather, I've never lived underground, and I can't travel forward in time to see if the world I've written is realistic.

But I can research weather control and electromagnetic fields, and make up stuff that allows the program to use those fields to control the weather. I can research how the Internet works so I can make up stuff about hackers and the people trying to find them. I can research bunkers and survivalist techniques to understand exactly what would be needed for entire populations to live and survive in underground cities. And I can use my limited knowledge of weather, physics, biology, and chemistry, and build on each by looking up things I need to know for my stories.

Granted, my readers don't care as much about the science of it all as they do the love story in each book, but you'd better believe if I write something that's too far-fetched, or defies the laws of physics (or how the Internet currently works!) as we know them, I'll be nailed on it.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've given several of my psychological thriller characters physical ailments I've experienced, which makes them more human and is a useful trick for tripping the reader up, as they suddenly realise that they're empathising with a serial killer!

I've been alone, not in a relationship for eight years, so I've written characters who are are journeying through life solo. My fictional creations are solitary for a variety of reasons, including pressures of their job, temperament, mental illness, poverty and choice. I've known these, and have worked professionally as a volunteer and counsellor with those who've been marginalised in such ways. It's a little acknowledged trend that 34% of people live alone these days, though there was an interesting documentary on the BBC last week called The Age of Loneliness, which was well made and revealing. It's available on iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06vkhr5/the-age-of-loneliness

I'd hazard a guess that most writers use autobiographical details. The internet makes research easy, but knowing a thing or place from personal experience rings true. I also use incidents that have happened to colleagues, acquaintances, relatives, friends and strangers—changing details and names to protect the innocent and the guilty. As writers, I think we're constantly gathering raw material to process later for conversion into an incident in our books. In that way we're always 'On'.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

I think you pick up a lot of stuff subconsciously that can be useful in writing. You read and watch sci-fi, so no need to go to outer space. Jules Verne never went to the centre of the earth, he used his imagination. As for our books being influenced by people in our lives, I'm not sure but that probably varies a lot. Some directly, others less so. Probably we use characteristics of people who were more notiable in our lives and maybe it depends on what genre we may be writing in. Kind of an open book in itself

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Again I got kicked out trying to post that reply?? What gives!!

 

[Emurelda]

Again I got kicked out trying to post that reply?? What gives!!

You're the moderator..stop kicking yourself out. Strueth!

 

[Alistair Roberts]

I'm a bad bad boy and I didn't know it - except sub-consciously !! Beat that lol

 

[Amber Zade]

Well.... funny story that.....

I watched a movie called the Grifters... many many years ago.... and I had an epiphany - 'That's what my family is like.' LOL It's funny because in the movie the mother kills her son to save her own skin. Some might find it sad ... but I prefer funny.... life is pretty ludicrous anyway.

So I set out to write a paranormal romance with supernatural grifters and it was loosely based on my family.

I can't really even call it a romance at this point. It's more sci-fi now. There are still very bad people who exploit others for their own profit and gratification based on my own people (my family - specifically my Mother's side).

Another story I am working on is based on my own fascination with ambivalence - specifically how dark isn't necessarily light and light isn't always dark ... et cet era. I think understanding ambivalence is essential... and in my head ... ambivalence is sort of beautiful....

...and I dearly want to write a story about Jack the Ripper where he redeems himself. I've been sort of working on it here and there .... I'm being encouraged NOT to do this. But it's not like I'm trying to redeem Hitler .... I really believe there is a part of us that loves the story of Jack the Ripper.... and so I think if done right .... it would work. This is based on my own IDEA that everyone deserves redemption (except for Hans Solo's son ... him I won't forgive).

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Given the gory success of Dexter as an understandable vigilante serial killer hunting down murderers who've escaped justice, then Jack the Ripper as a killer with a cause might be doable....As a moralistic protester against street whores, his methods are extreme!

The tourist industry and writers already love Jack, though there have been protests against a Jack the Ripper museum on the basis that it glorifies violence against women:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...oversial-jack-the-ripper-museum-a3071111.html

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Another novel featuring a seemingly malevolent protagonist is The Inquisitor by Mark Allen Smith. I read it when it was published in 2012, thinking that it would be one hell of a stretch to get the reader to empathise with a professional torturer, even if he described his work as 'information retrieval'. But the portrayal of a torture artist known only as Geiger is even-handed and surprisingly sympathetic. I haven't read the sequel The Confessor yet, as I've been too busy creating my own fictional nightmares.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12160887-the-inquisitor

 

[KG Christopher]

Thanks for all the responses. I think the point I was trying to make was in reference to the Guardian article, all of the '2016 Upcoming Novelists' seemed only to be on the list because of their work directly related to their own personal experiences, or with their profession. I read the article and thought that they were only 'serious' authors if they wrote about things that had a resonance in their own lives.

 

[Octopus Messiah]

On the flip side, I've always tried to make up in experience for what I lack in imagination. Top 3 reasons my book was filed under fiction: legal, sequential and hallucinatory!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Kind of funny story...there's a little bit of a scene in one of my books in which I lifted some dialogue directly from my own experience--something someone once said to me and had a profound impact--because it was so perfect I couldn't not use it. The assessor commented "this is awkward--nobody says this." *sigh* my little voice answered, "but...but...but...it really happened...just like that"

 

[Alistair Roberts]

But, but, but.... butter wouldn't melt....

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Kind of funny story...there's a little bit of a scene in one of my books in which I lifted some dialogue directly from my own experience--something someone once said to me and had a profound impact--because it was so perfect I couldn't not use it. The assessor commented "this is awkward--nobody says this." *sigh* my little voice answered, "but...but...but...it really happened...just like that"

I've had this happen before, too, but something to remember is that we write fiction, which is normal life without all the boring stuff. We don't write nonfiction, which (should be) is all facts. We have to make our stories interesting

I know you were just sharing a funny story, but I've heard people complain about this before

 

[Emurelda]

I've had this happen before, too, but something to remember is that we write fiction, which is normal life without all the boring stuff. We don't write nonfiction, which (should be) is all facts. We have to make our stories interesting

I know you were just sharing a funny story, but I've heard people complain about this before
View attachment 909

Actually even nonfiction has to be told in a narrated story-like fashion. Facts are fine but nobody picks up a nonfiction book just for the facts it's the style of delivery that's key and the presentation.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Ah, maybe you misunderstood--it wasn't that it was too much boring stuff (too much like real life), it was that it was too outrageous. She just didn't think it would happen that way in the real world, so it didn't work in fiction...go figure. I took it out, like a good little girl, and make the characters say and do normal things instead. *shrugs* Someday I'll use it in a work of non-fiction.

 

[Carol Rose]

Ah, maybe you misunderstood--it wasn't that it was too much boring stuff (too much like real life), it was that it was too outrageous. She just didn't think it would happen that way in the real world, so it didn't work in fiction...go figure. I took it out, like a good little girl, and make the characters say and do normal things instead. *shrugs* Someday I'll use it in a work of non-fiction.

Why would you take out something you know actually happened, and that you liked in your book, on the opinion of ONE person??? I mean if you were there, and it happened that way, and whoever said to actually said it that way, keep it in. It's YOUR book, after all. Quirky things like that are what make a story interesting.

I have a dear author friend whom I adore (and know well) in real life, but the dialogue in her books is so stilted and formal. Everyone sounds the same. She tries so hard to make sure it makes sense, and is punctuated correctly and all that jazz, that she forgets to give each character a distinct voice.

If you think about it, each of us speaks in a different manner. We use phrases unique to us. We have a distinct syntax to our sentences and a unique cadence to our voices. You can go overboard in your writing if you try to do too much, and as a consequence your readers will have to work too hard to figure out what your character is trying to say, but little quirks here and there, or a unique way of expressing certain ideas, is part of what gives a character life. It takes them from two-dimensional to three-D, and makes them leap off the page.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Ah, maybe you misunderstood--it wasn't that it was too much boring stuff (too much like real life), it was that it was too outrageous. She just didn't think it would happen that way in the real world, so it didn't work in fiction...go figure. I took it out, like a good little girl, and make the characters say and do normal things instead. *shrugs* Someday I'll use it in a work of non-fiction.

I love using stuff like that. Any time I hear something and think "you just can't make crap like that up" I try to write it down. There have been so many more that I've lost, than I've recorded... sad face.

Why would you take out something you know actually happened, and that you liked in your book, on the opinion of ONE person??? I mean if you were there, and it happened that way, and whoever said to actually said it that way, keep it in. It's YOUR book, after all. Quirky things like that are what make a story interesting.

I have a dear author friend whom I adore (and know well) in real life, but the dialogue in her books is so stilted and formal. Everyone sounds the same. She tries so hard to make sure it makes sense, and is punctuated correctly and all that jazz, that she forgets to give each character a distinct voice.

If you think about it, each of us speaks in a different manner. We use phrases unique to us. We have a distinct syntax to our sentences and a unique cadence to our voices. You can go overboard in your writing if you try to do too much, and as a consequence your readers will have to work too hard to figure out what your character is trying to say, but little quirks here and there, or a unique way of expressing certain ideas, is part of what gives a character life. It takes them from two-dimensional to three-D, and makes them leap off the page.

Here here! I'm probably the biggest proponent of formal, rigidly-perfect grammar here. I use semicolons in dialogue (dodges murder attempt from Carol), but some characters I'll give stiff, wooden dialogue to try to make them seem stiff and wooden. Others I'll give fluid, natural speech and slang. Others I'll sprinkle in archaic and period influences. They're all flavors in a delicious prose entrée. What would prose taste like anyway?

 

[Alistair Roberts]

It would taste awful with semicolons in it

 

[Jason Byrne]

It would taste awful with semicolons in it

I think semicolons would taste like roasted almonds.
Look how delicious these semicolons look.

 

[Patricia D]

Recently read a blog that made the point that real life doesn't have to make sense--and often seems not to, but fiction readers expect a story arc. That said, I draw upon experiences I've had and things I've heard, and then I add imagination, research, and wishes, flights of fancy and outright lies.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Recently read a blog that made the point that real life doesn't have to make sense--and often seems not to, but fiction readers expect a story arc. That said, I draw upon experiences I've had and things I've heard, and then I add imagination, research, and wishes, flights of fancy and outright lies.

Perfect! Real experience is good to add little tid-bits — background information that sets your work apart as novel and unique.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

If I learned anything by writing for government agencies and committees for many years, it was to be flexible. There are countless ways of saying the same thing, and I learned how to appease everyone by creative word choice (well, okay, some people were just going to be pissed off at me no matter what, because they wanted me to lie, or because someone who they hated approved my text (tribal politics suck), but I also learned to back up every word with research) I respect my assessor a great deal--she has much greater knowledge of what sells, and she also has a completely different perspective on my writing than I do. She reads my words without my own understanding of them, so I have to take note when she doesn't hear what I hear in the words. What I replaced the offending dialogue with was, in my mind, perfectly acceptable, and I've stored my little gem away for another day--everyone happy.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

I think semicolons would taste like roasted almonds.
Look how delicious these semicolons look.

View attachment 912

Sorry Jason, but frankly (where's Frank?), you're nuts!! lol

Taking of Frank, (American's probably wouldn't know this one), but it reminded me of Frank Spencer, aka Some Mothers do have 'em

 

[Jason Byrne]

Muahaha...

 

[Patricia D]

Sorry Jason, but frankly (where's Frank?), you're nuts!! lol

Taking of Frank, (American's probably wouldn't know this one), but it reminded me of Frank Spencer, aka Some Mothers do have 'em

This American is baffled - can you drop a little hint?

 

[Jason Byrne]

This American is baffled - can you drop a little hint?

Who doesn't know THIS guy?!