Simple question this morning, TKZers. Or maybe not so simple…
Inquiring minds want to know…
Life happens, right?
In your Reading/Writing life, is there a particular event from your own life that crops up over and over in what you write or choose to read? What “happening” in your own sojourn on planet earth flavors your stories? Something sad, or happy, or chaotic? Something that lifted you to new heights, or threw you down and stomped on you?
Each character is colored by my life experiences. Yours?
Not to be too gloomy or bleak, for me it was losing my younger brother and sister five years apart. Those dark years, as sad as they were while living through them, have formed my characters into people who know what’s important. And they teach me.
So, how about you? What about your life feeds into your favorite characters, either written or read?
I can identify with the loss of multiple loved ones–I lost 4 immediate family members over the course of about 10-11 years. That and life events like that–both sad and happy–can’t help but come into play as you write. You can’t help but draw on those emotions as you write your own stories.
Speaking of drawing on emotions, I’m giving myself the liberty to go off topic into non-fiction. We’ve all had dreams as kids. One dream of mine was to ride horseback from east coast to west coast. Well lo & behold, through an email newsletter from the C.M. Russell Museum, I was alerted to a book by Will Grant “The Last Ride of the Pony Express”. I learned I wasn’t the only one who came up with some crazy notions. This gentleman wanted to re-trace the route of the Pony Express from Missouri to California and he followed through and did so (I think circa 2019). And that’s what the book is about.
That may be a non-fic example, but wow, just hearing about that book and it’s subject plucked my emotions!
Good morning, Brenda…loved your Pony Express example. I have one of my own.
Rob Phillips is a local crime writer, here in central Washington. His novels are set in this local area, which makes them so fun to read. When he mentions the Little Naches River, or the Gleed area, I know exactly where those are and what those regions look like.
He published a book in 2022, however, that is not a crime novel. The title is A Dog Life Well Lived, and is about the dogs he has owned throughout his life. The title grabbed my emotions because of the recent loss of our friend, Hoka. I think I must buy this book.
Thanks for dropping in this morning…and I hope you have a great day!
I did do my dream trip and ended up using the trip to find places to take my heroines in a trilogy I’m editing/rewriting/making better (I hope) of 3 women riding motorcycles who end up traveling to Alaska together. They are from different area of the USA, but each on wanted to see Alaska.
I use some of my trip on my motorcycle around the USA. I spent 18 months traveling and it was a blast, even with some of the scarier moments (like the bear outside of my tent one night) How can we not use our experiences in writing?
Wow!
A bear outside your tent. What a cool story that’d make!
😵💫😵💫😵💫
Good topic, Deb. Very thought-provoking.
I don’t think there’s just one event that crops up over and over again in my stories. I think my stories reflect many people who have poured kindnesses into my life over the years. I’ll use a characteristic of a great aunt or the common sense behavior of a good friend to thread through a story. Sometimes I’ll use a name or part of a name of someone special. It’s my way of honoring them.
Mornin’ Kay…
I love your take on this question. And thinking about my own writing, I agree wholeheartedly. Example: In The Master’s Inn, two of the main characters are Marine vets. Their story arcs, when I wrote the first novel draft (it started life as a play) are a testament to our brave men and women who protect our country. But, they are flawed human beings, too, and I wanted their struggles and victories to be front and center. They are both composites of some heroes in my own life.
Have a great day!
I don’t think there’s one major event that informs my writing. More like the culmination of living a full and (mostly) happy life, and the way I view the world as a whole.
Hi, Sue!
I like your summation. “A full and (mostly) happy life” makes for stories that tell the truth about this world we live in, but encourages the reader to reach for the higher and the better that’s always just around the corner.
Thanks for stopping by!
Interesting food for thought here. I don’t normally get this introspective, but your question stirred some memories. I came from a chaotic home, but not a broken one. Dad was aloof, Mom was overbearing and I was a pain in the ass. As for specific events . . .
When I was around 5 years old, the house across the street from us burned down at Christmastime, killing the entire family, including all 5 kids.
When I was 7 or 8, Colonel Fitzmaurice, who lived a few doors down from us, answered a knock at his door around dinnertime and was murdered by a shotgun blast while he stood in his foyer. They never did catch his killer.
When I was 10, I was staying at my grandparents’ apartment in New Jersey when the store on the first floor caught fire and filled the stairway with flames & smoke. I had to be rescued off the roof by a fireman–who accidentally burned my shoulder twice with his cigarette as he was helping me down.
When I was 12, my family was staying at Split Rock Lodge in the Poconos when it caught fire in the middle of the night and burned to the ground. Only the chimneys remained.
About the same age, my friend Gina, who lived across the street, died at home and to my knowledge no one ever really knew why or of what.
When I was 20 and working as a camp counselor for over-privileged rich kids, John F., an 11-year-old I was responsible for, chased a ball into a busy street and got hit by a speeding car. He survived, but barely. I hear he’s still not right.
Then there’s the fire service stuff . . .
So, what do I write about? Heroic people with a solid sense of what is right and what is wrong, who bring order to chaos and hold bad guys to account. I’ve never connected these dots until right now. Maybe this writing stuff really is therapy.
Hi John…
Your comment made my day…no hyperbole there.
So, what do I write about? Heroic people with a solid sense of what is right and what is wrong, who bring order to chaos and hold bad guys to account. I’ve never connected these dots until right now. Maybe this writing stuff really is therapy.
I can’t think of any other words to say (my husband would not believe that!), other than now I have an inkling of why I devour your books. It’s almost like you lived your stories first. And those are totally inadequate words. There is an authenticity about your characters, and each scene you make them live through that makes me forget I’m reading. I’m there in the scene with them.
Thank you for joining in this morning. As I said, you made my day. Carpe typem, as JSB would say. 🙂
I was a learning working physicist at Princeton’s Plasma Physics Lab when I went to a meeting of the American Physical Society to present a paper on my research, came home with a virus, and have never gotten well. That was 1989.
I didn’t give my main character, Dr. Kary Ashe, in my Pride’s Children mainstream trilogy all of that by any means, but I’ve been working for 25 years now on the story of how the world – and by contamination, the disabled/chronically ill themselves – sees the consequences of not being able to ‘compete’ on the same playing field as able-bodied people, how they adapt, how they struggle not to let it affect all the parts of their lives, their sense of self-worth, and what they might still be able to achieve.
I’ve lived with ME/CFS for 35 years; it affects everything I do every day (part of why I’m such a slow writer. I’ve had lovely testimonials from those who read the story – but also understand more about living with the burden of illness:
You become a more refined and tempered version of yourself – to survive.
Thanks for that perspective, Alicia.
Those who live in the world of chronic illness, whatever kind it is, have a lot to teach those of us who haven’t.
Having worked in oncology for 15 years, I always say, “If you want to be encouraged, talk to a cancer patient.”
Glad you stopped by!
🥰
Sorry about the loss of your siblings. My mother suffered from Alzheimer’s, and that’s been a recurring element in my books.
Afternoon, Sharon.
Thanks for adding to our musings today. Authors are certainly an eclectic group of experiences for sure.
The trick, I guess, is to tease out the cream of those experiences, let it rise to the top, then dribble it over our scenes.
Have a great weekend!
Late to the party today, Deb. Great question. In my case there isn’t one event that shaped me as a writer and reader. I’ve always loved books, I’ve always loved to “pretend,” and I love stories. Certainly events in my life inform my writing and my characterizations. That said, my coming from a working class background (my father worked two blue-collar jobs while I was growing up) does inform my world view.
Of course, so do all those years working with the public at various libraries 🙂
Hey Dale! Late’s better than never…
Loving to pretend, I think, is a staple of a writer’s personality. We just love making up stuff for those characters to do.
And when they push back and say, “No way!” … then it gets really fun!
Have a good one!