MESSAGE BOARD TOPIC #23

[Comicality]

One of the things that my teachers have always taught me about writing, something I pass along to everyone else who wants to write something for themselves, is simply to 'write what you know'. Whatever it is that you are connected to, whatever you're passionate about, whatever you've lived through and experienced first hand. That's where you can convey the most emotion and honesty in your work, in my opinion. But....when you think about it, how long can that last? I mean, how many experiences can one single person have in their life? You know? What happens when you've poured it all into one story?

 

The question this week is...

 

= With only so many life experiences to draw from, is it possible to write what you DON'T know? =

 

I mean, how can a writer talk about something that he doesn't truly know from first hand experience? Even when it comes to sci-fi and the like, isn't that just a twist on the author's own life? How can you keep from running out of 'life' to draw from when writing new things? For you readers, can you easily pick out a level of 'artificial knowledge' or 'fakeness' in certain stories, where the author seems to have 'read up on' a certain subject, but never lived it? Whatever your thoughts are on this, let us know!

 

The board is open!

[ethan thorn]

well what i am writeing is from a live action roelplay i use to run it went from 2000 to 2003 adn it ended because i dont know why but i think it was 2 of the people in the groupe was what i thought good friends and i came out to them well bad idea that took care of the role play but i have a friend that i told about it and he said it would make a good story so i have 3 years is of stuff to wriet on and more to add if i want since it is a fantasy story may be i will write about so real life stuff some day but only if i get good reviews on my story.

[Billy17]

Hey Com,

For me,being only 15,I certainly am limited to personal experiences,hehe.I know most of my poems are about being a gay teen.So those poems are definitely from my life.Not necessarily from personal experience,but when I hear or read something that really gets to me,I think how I would feel and the words just come out.It literally hurts when I hear of anothers pain.I cry,I feel very sad,then angry that

people can be so horrible to each other.Believe me I'm not a dark,depressed boy.I love life and look forward to many challenges in my future.I guess my feeling on the topic is,I believe someone can write outside of their personl experiences.I think writing may come from how well a writer's ability to truly feel the emotions of others.

Can a reader tell if a story is from personal experience.I think this seperates the very good writers from all others who write.Again it's about a writer who absorbs the feelings of others.It becomes a part of

him and the only way to survive so many emotions is to write.At least this is why I write,I think.Thats why I like Comicality Shack,I'm learning.

Here is a poem I wrote while sitting in a ice cream shop.I saw this couple and it made me think,I can't do that and it made me mad.

 

"All Love is Beautiful"

I see a couple holding hands

all lovey dovey and touchy

kisses by the dozen pass between them

no one cares they think it's cute

are they lovers or newlyweds

just one word and you know they're str8

can't you see how wrong it is

two boys can't do just the same

their love is as real as that boy and girl

from the day they came to be

it was destined it would be boys they love

it's as natural as any who love

don't turn the beauty of love into hate

love can turn this ugly world around

don't deny love to anyone

if you do you have hate in your heart

destroying love in it's wake

it can begin with only one

who understands any love is better than none

Billy

[WoodCarver]

Well... Now I'm confused.

 

You may not have intended to imply that you 'just read up on' vampires, but it seems that way to me...

 

Next you'be telling me that they're not real and that Santa Claus is a figment of someone's imagination!

 

I'm crushed!

 

No don't tell me. Na Na Nana Na Na, I can't here you.

 

Seriously though, I used to belong to a VietNam Veterans board on DepressionNet (sounds worse than the name implies) and occasionally someone would post, and it was obvious to me that the story was just researched. The buzz words would just be wrong.

 

So given that the story is one I have intimate knowledge of, yes I can tell.

 

Please don't tell me GFD is not real!

[Sparhawk]

I think that you can be a good author without all the life experinces. I do think that it takes a lot of research and finding people that have lived through what you may be writing about to use as sounding boards as you write. There are many great authors out there that could not possiably live through everything that they write about.

 

Also you will find that most, if not all the great writers are also avid readers. This is one more great way to get a feel for the subject. It really is amazing what we can experince just through our minds and the words of others authors.

 

This thread made me think about how I got my start reading novels. I would like to share it with you all, and it does have to do with fact and experince in writing.

 

I grew up in NW Colorado, right on the border of the Rockies. To the west was all high desert and to the east the Rockies. My Grandfather was one of the last of the old Cowboys. He was a master outdoorsman and a gunsmith. My great love of the outdoors all came from this man. When I was 12 years old he took me out in the high desert for the weekend. We had to hike in 9 miles to the place that we were going. When we got there I was totaly amazed.

 

It was a canyon and in the bottom there was a cabin with a fruit orchard. There was a cool clear runing creek full of native trout. There was wildlife in abundance, Deer, Elk, Rabbits and we even saw a Cougar. It was a amazing and wonderful weekend for me. My Grandfather told me that weekend that he had only brought one other person to this place, but he would not tell me who it was. He told me that one day down the road, I would figure it out for myself.

 

My Grandfather passed away the month before I had to report to Navy Bootcamp. One of the things that he left me was his collection of Louis Lamour books. At this time I was not a avid reader. When I told my Grandmother I was going on my first Med cruise she sent me 6 of the books to read on the cruise. She sent me a note telling me to read a certain book first. She said that Granfather had told her "When she gave me the books to read this one first".

 

So anyway I started with that one. It was good too, I was enjoying the story and all of a sudden....... I was back in that canyon. The detail was so rich it could be no other place than Grandfathers canyon, that he had took me to. When I finished the book, there at the end was a note to me from Grandfather.

 

"Mike, Now you know who the other person was"

 

"Love"

 

"Gramps"

 

I read all six of those novels on that cruise and anything else I could get my hands on. I think that was even the year I read Herman Woulk's "Winds of War".

 

 

So any way I thought you all might enjoy that, even if I got a little detracted there a bit.

 

I do think that life experinces are important, but I think there are other ways to obtain them.

[Comicality]

By myself, it would be kinda hard for me to figure out how to answer the question. But reading what you guys wrote, it's pretty much the exact same way. Whether writing from a roleplaying game, or about being a gay teen, or reading up on a subject and trying to imitate it, or sharing a special experience (Awesome story by the way, Sparhawk)...every story is still me. I'd love to get further and further away from it if I could, but writing everything from "New Kid" to "GFD"...huge pieces of my real life and my real experiences always sneak in. Without fail.

 

For example, my father and I obviously did NOT have a good relationship growing up. (To say the LEAST!) So in all of my stories, I notice that the father is always abusive, or just 'absent' altogether. Almost always. And when I try to write about a loving and caring father figure, it just doesn't come out right. It feels artificial to me, you know? Like I'm making it all up and no father is really like that. It's weird. There are recurring themes in all of my stories that repeat over and over again, and I'm always on a quest to avoid that.

 

As for "GFD" being real? Hehehhe! It IS real! Just not entirely. Just like Billy mentioned that all of his poems are about growing up as a gay teen....if you look closely, so is "GFD". The whole story is my life. Feeling different, feeling outcast, not being able to fight the hunger for what you really want, scared of life, scared of love....the whole thing. Everything that I've written from day one has included some real experience of mine or some painful emotion that I was deling with at the time. Some boy I had a crush on, some sexual situation I was in, some thoughts I dealt with, or some friends that I grew up with. Without that life experience, I don't know what I'd write about.

 

So me personally? I can only write what I know. I'd love to grow beyond that someday, but for right now, it's all I know how to write. I know there are a lot of folks that can do it very well. Write stories from different periods in history, or create awesome sci fi from their imagination, or develop characters that aren't similar to the author. But if I write anything, you can pretty much believe that that's what I was feeling at that particular time on that particular day. Always. I hope it doesn't get too repetitive. Hehehe!

[Crackerwriter]

It's so difficult NOT to put something of yourself into stories isn't it?

 

I'd agree with Comicality, everything I've written has a touch of me there somewhere. Maybe it's not so obvious to everyone, but when I look back over it, I can think to myself, 'yeah, that's me, right there.'

 

It's something I've never really thought about before admittedly, but I think you're right maybe, the best stories come from experience.

 

When you get round to seeing mine you'll probably shout LIAR, LIAR! And if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe either!!

 

Mike.g