Today I would like to welcome author Nelle Davy here as a part of the
The Legacy of Eden blog tour. She have provided us with a post about whether or not you should use personal stories in writing. Please read on and enjoy.
Using Personal Stories in Writing: Do or Don’t?
Guest Post by Nelle Davy, author of
The Legacy of Eden
Of course it is a do. One of my favourite books is
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson which is a reworking of her own childhood within a fictional format as opposed to an outright memoir. What matters is that you are true to the kind of story you wish to tell, regardless of what is the inspiration. I would also say that no writer works in a vacuum as if their books are ‘ex nihilo.’ Whether you mean to or not, you write the kind of story you are either interested in, or have been through in some way. It is all inspired by your personal past and you rework it, sometimes even try to ignore it, but then press it down and reshape it so that it can become unrecognizable from truth but it still has seeds in it. There are some stories I love to read but would never be able to write because I would never be inspired to write them because they come from a different sort of experience to the one I have had. But novels should be about trying to tell some kind of truth – either the one you wish was real or the one that is. And sometimes I think the novels that have impressed me the most and the ones that have really stayed with me as visceral works of honest art are the one that you discover had some grounding in the author’s past. You do look at them in a new light and they seem so much more informed. But this novel is not based on my own personal story in any other way than it is about the interrogation and destruction of the family unit.
Thank you for your time and for writing
The Legacy of Eden. You can visit Nelle at her
website for more.
Copyright © 2012 by The Maiden’s Court
Great post. I think it would be hard not to put some of your life or experiences into your writing. As long as the writer is okay with sharing and identities are protected, others can learn from the story, or know they are not alone.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is sort of an inherent thing about writing - you write what you know in someways. Maybe it is just that one of your characters has some of the personality traits of a friend or family member or maybe it is more of a storyline from your life. I do think that if you are sticking true to life you should "protect the innocent" per se.
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