I've been putting together a collection of short stories for publication and have discovered during the process that I fold a great deal of myself into my writing. No, they're not autobiographical, but they hold bits and pieces of the life I've lived in them.
The creek where I went swimming is the scene of a murder. The various diners around the area are settings for several stories as well as the small towns that dot the countryside where I live. And the people I know, the gossip, the way they act in any given situation, it's all in there. The good and the bad.
In the time I've been writing, I was always looking for that gimmick that would make a story click. Turn it into something marketable. But as I'm rewriting old stories and writing new ones I've discovered that what makes a story good is not the gimmick, but the truth. The truth of how we live our lives, how we act when push comes to shove, and what we'll do when someone we love is threatened. Just plain old ordinary people living their lives until the shit hits the fan.
How about you? What have you learned while writing your stories? Have you discovered yourself living on the fringes of your words?
6 comments:
I find the same thing in my writing, bits and pieces of my world and life scattered throughout. I sometimes wonder what I've learned. Something, I think, though I'm not sure I could name it.
When I write, it's a lot like taking dictation. The words come, and I write them down. Because I prefer writing realistic fiction, there's always the ear for whether something rings true to life. Since much of what I know of life is my own experience, the result is for better or worse about me. Do I recognize myself? Probably not as much as I should.
Yes, that's exactly it, Charles. Writing the stories seems to be a way to work through what life's thrown in our path.
Some stories I can see myself clearly in, Ron, and others I feel like an observer.
I have discovered that my husband's life is the one I write about. I have never confronted my own story.
I think I've tried from day one to insert a little bit of me/my world into everything that I write.
Makes it that more interesting and enjoyable.
I've used all my family and friends in one form or another over the years, Patti. I was just surprised when putting together this group of stories how much of myself I could see. :)
Whenever I tried consciously to put myself in a story, G, it always failed. Real life isn't nearly as easy to write as fiction.
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