{"id":6081,"date":"2024-08-19T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T04:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/?p=6081"},"modified":"2024-08-15T10:28:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T14:28:09","slug":"do-you-write-from-real-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawpublishing.com\/do-you-write-from-real-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Write from Real Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OneOne of my most frequently asked questions as a writer is: \u201cHow much of your writing comes from real life?\u201d<\/p>\n

And the answer, boiled down to a nutshell, is: It depends.<\/p>\n

It depends on the story, it depends on the characters, and maybe most importantly, it depends on what you mean by the question.<\/p>\n

When people ask me if my stories come from real life, they don\u2019t always mean the same thing.<\/p>\n

Some of them are asking, \u201cAre there real life incidents in your stories?\u201d Others wonder if the whole narrative is a veiled autobiography (and I think a lot of them are secretly hoping it is). And still others want to know how I can write authentically about deep struggles and experiences that perhaps I\u2019ve never personally known.<\/p>\n

And for each of those questions, there\u2019s a slightly different answer.<\/p>\n

Question #1: Are There Real Incidents In Your Stories?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"OnePlain and simple: yes. Yes, there are. They aren\u2019t on every page, or even in every book, and many of them are the small and meaningless details that just give a little pop of colour to the story, but yes, they\u2019re most certainly there.<\/p>\n

For example, the bulk foods store where Cherish and Shayla work in Tomorrow Isn\u2019t Promised<\/em><\/a>, was loosely inspired by my own experiences as a cashier in a butcher shop. Details are obviously changed, but my general understanding of the setting was definitely influenced by real life. Or to go even more minute, after I started driving, I noticed myself using the mundane tasks of operating a car to punctuate internal or external dialogue in many different scenes. Often the real life details make excellent action beats, breaking up the dialogue and deeper themes of the story.<\/p>\n

Question #2: Are Your Stories Autobiographical?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

This is often what I hear when people ask me \u201cdo you write from real life?\u201d\u2014and sometimes, I feel a little badly (even while I\u2019m also very grateful!) that the answer is a resounding \u201cno.\u201d Maybe someday I\u2019ll have the courage to write an autobiography, but it hasn\u2019t happened yet. As vulnerable as writing fiction can be, autobiography looks a lot more terrifying.<\/p>\n

You see, when you release a book into the world it\u2019s out there for everyone to see, comment on, and yes, at times scrutinize rather mercilessly. If this is true for fiction, it’s even more true for autobiography (even carefully veiled!) and I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m tough-skinned enough for that!<\/p>\n

The one, itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, and I-hesitate-even-to-mention-it exception is a few broad details in the backstory to my Fellowship of Light series. I did indeed grow up in an Evangelical homeschooling family, I experienced a number of church transitions throughout my growing up years, and I ended up in a Mennonite church in my late teens. HOWEVER\u2014and this is a big however\u2014the incidents surrounding the Hall and Matthews families and their ongoing stories\u00a0 are completely fictional, including how they ended up where they ended up. (Trying hard to avoid spoilers!) Their story is not a disguised version of my own, but a fictional tale that is believable due to, but not based on, my own experiences.<\/p>\n

Question #3: How Do You Write What You Don\u2019t Know?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Whenever I suspect that someone is actually asking this question, it makes me a little uncomfortable. Partly because of my own humanity, and partly because it\u2019s maybe the most vulnerable aspect of the whole question. I\u2019m sure most people don’t mean it this way, but it can feel sometimes like they’re questioning the credibility of an author who writes about deep things she hasn\u2019t actually been through.<\/p>\n

And this is where I pull out a favourite quote I discovered in the past year that really expresses how I feel about this issue.<\/p>\n

(Note: As I wrote this post, I searched high and low to find where I saved the quote, and I wasn\u2019t able to locate it, so if anybody knows who to attribute it to, I would be very grateful for the information!)<\/p>\n

\u201cWrite whatever you can imagine, but ground it in the emotions you know.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I may not have been through the traumatic loss of a lover or a dear friend, but I know what grief feels like. I may not have been betrayed by everyone in my hour of deepest need, but I know what abandonment feels like. I know what it is to struggle and come out defeated, to love something and lose it, to face darkness and find out that you can keep on going long after you think you\u2019re down and out. I can\u2019t live all the lives I want to write about, but I have lived this one life long enough to understand that at its core, every life is the same. We face different challenges, but we experience the same emotions. And that\u2019s where we come to my favourite part of the question.<\/p>\n

Is There Anything<\/em> Real About What You Write?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Yes! Yes, there absolutely is. The most important part of all, actually: the soul. When I write fiction, the part of myself that I scatter lavishly over every page is in fact the very deepest part of me and of the story\u2014far deeper than the events or the plot. The emotions, the heartaches, and the universal struggles of humanity are the \u201creal\u201d parts of the fiction I write. So are the hope and the laughter and the belief in ultimate victory. The eternal truths of faith in God and hope of heaven are the things you can\u2019t fake when you write fiction.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I don\u2019t believe we can write anything that hasn\u2019t already been a part of us, in some way at some time\u2014even when we\u2019re writing fiction. Imagination is only possible because we can compare what we\u2019ve never experienced to something that we know and understand. Every time one of my characters longs or struggles, grieves or rejoices or stands in awe, it\u2019s because\u2014in some different place, at some different time, I have experienced something parallel. The lessons and revelations of every character arc have a little piece of my soul in them.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t write about<\/em> things I know, I write from<\/em> things I know, and I believe it\u2019s one of the best things I can offer to my readers\u2014a little piece of me.<\/p>\n

So do I write from real life? Yes\u2014and no\u2014and yes again. It all depends on which question you\u2019re actually asking!<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this peek behind the scenes, you might also be interested in:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Do<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my most frequently asked questions as a writer is: \u201cHow much of your writing comes from real life?\u201d And the answer, boiled down to a nutshell, is: It… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,58,60,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-fiction","category-sawpublications","category-the-bookshelf"],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Write from Real Life? - Sheep Among Wolves Publishing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of my most frequently asked questions as a writer is, \u201cHow much of your writing comes from real life?\u201d But does everyone who asks this question want to know the same thing? 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