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rainwatersparkToday's topic was inspired by some tweets I saw lately.
So...writing a story about your own personal experiences is a double-edged sword. I say this as someone who *has* written fiction about my personal experiences. On one hand, I think writers are drawn to telling stories about our personal experiences, especially as a way to process negative events. Like a splinter beneath your skin that you're trying to excise.
On the other hand, writing about your personal experiences can make receiving criticism of those experiences excruciatingly difficult to deal with.
Whenever I think I'd like to be transparent about my inspiration for my stories when they're derived from my experiences, I think about Akemi Dawn Bowman (author of Starfish and other books). She once tweeted that when she explained that the protagonist's experience with her abusive mom came from her own experience with her abusive mom, she received comments from readers who said her mom probably has a mental illness and judging her would be ableist, which caused her to have a mental breakdown.
Sometimes, I regret the publication of my first novel in the sense that it was so personal to me - even if the personal aspects of it were metaphorical rather than literal - and I wonder how I ever had the confidence to put this story in front of other people.
My third novel (which has yet to be published) is literally drawn from many of my life experiences, yet I feel uneasy about sharing that publicly because I'm afraid of people trying to poke and prod me as to how much of the story is autobiographical and how much isn't.
Basically, writing a story about your own personal experiences seems like a thorny issue with no best way to resolve it, other than not reading any reviews or answering any questions about the story.
So...writing a story about your own personal experiences is a double-edged sword. I say this as someone who *has* written fiction about my personal experiences. On one hand, I think writers are drawn to telling stories about our personal experiences, especially as a way to process negative events. Like a splinter beneath your skin that you're trying to excise.
On the other hand, writing about your personal experiences can make receiving criticism of those experiences excruciatingly difficult to deal with.
Whenever I think I'd like to be transparent about my inspiration for my stories when they're derived from my experiences, I think about Akemi Dawn Bowman (author of Starfish and other books). She once tweeted that when she explained that the protagonist's experience with her abusive mom came from her own experience with her abusive mom, she received comments from readers who said her mom probably has a mental illness and judging her would be ableist, which caused her to have a mental breakdown.
Sometimes, I regret the publication of my first novel in the sense that it was so personal to me - even if the personal aspects of it were metaphorical rather than literal - and I wonder how I ever had the confidence to put this story in front of other people.
My third novel (which has yet to be published) is literally drawn from many of my life experiences, yet I feel uneasy about sharing that publicly because I'm afraid of people trying to poke and prod me as to how much of the story is autobiographical and how much isn't.
Basically, writing a story about your own personal experiences seems like a thorny issue with no best way to resolve it, other than not reading any reviews or answering any questions about the story.
