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Using life experience in our writing

Started by Morbid Misery, January 30, 2009, 05:39:32 AM

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Morbid Misery

If a person was ever at any point in his or her life abused be it physically, emotional or psychologically is it then a good idea for them to use their suppressed anger and hatred (if they have any) in their writing regards of the genre they are writing in? Or do they run the risk of ruining their story/novel/screenplay.

MM

rsmccoy

Too vague a question to answer with too many variables. Brian Keene said that sometimes you have to bleed on the page. When a writer writes from a place of intimate knowledge, it can come across as true to the reader, and therefore it could be a more engaging story.

I think the problem is that unless you are writing for a very small cross section of the population (people who have been through the same thing you have), then it can come across too strong. Where is the balance point? How much is too much? I have no idea and that is a judgement call you have to make.

If you are writing for you, then the answer is simple. If you are writing in order to sell to a mass market, then you need to understand that it is a business. Publishers take what they can sell.
It's better to burn out, than fade away...

Mooncalled

Using life experiences can make your story richer, more true to life, and will give your work a distinctive voice.  But you'd have to be careful that it doesn't come across as a rant or as "preaching the evils of abuse".  Like rsmccoy said you'll need to find a balance between the harsh realities of abuse and escapism of fiction. 


Geoff_N

To unload your raw emotions onto page, whether it be angst, rage, hatred, etc is a kind of sublimation. As such it is better to release that way than to grab a hatchet and attack your target. Whether it makes good reading by others can only be judged when it is done. It is likely to be OTT. On the other hand you might need to feel pain to be able to write about it.

Geoff

SamLeeFreak

I think it's all in the execution. Your question makes me think of "The Girl Next Door." While Jack Ketchum wasn't writing based on his own abuse, it did come from a place of deep rage. He managed to convey that in a way that got the reader on his side, as opposed to sounding like some angry guy on a soap box.

Ed

I think it's difficult to do well, and it's probably the type of thing that will gain a greater depth when told from the perspective that comes with increasing age. Writing can be very cathartic, though, without you even noticing it at the time. I remember writing something a few years ago and thinking when I read it back, wow - I didn't realise just how angry I was about that until I wrote about it. Sometimes a character can say things you weren't able to at the time.

That said, with me it's always been incidental - I hadn't sat down to write about a specific thing I had issues with. I think you've got to be careful to make a story against the backdrop of abuse, rather than trying to make the abuse the story. It's difficult to maintain an impartial focus on emotive issues, though. Very difficult to do well.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]