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March 13, 2005
Putting it out there
From Stephanie, March's Guest Literary Chick!
Oh my god, it's almost 11:00 and I haven't done my blog! I have to give props (as they say)(they do say that, right?) to all the bloggers out there who are able to keep up with their blogging. I'm finding out what a true challenge it is and this is only my third shot. This is the thing. Blogs are incredibly public. Everything you say goes OUT THERE. You can't hide behind your fiction. Though... come to think of it... does Lani really have kids named Sweetness and Light? (See her previous post.) This has been on my mind a lot recently. Not the names of Lani's children, though I would like that clarified. But the concept of hiding behind fiction. And not hiding. I started teaching my writing class last week, and it came up right away. Is it okay to use your life?What if it makes your husband want to kill you? Can we use actual conversations? I encouraged everyone to use their lives for material. I certainly dip in there now and then. I love it when novelists do. There's nothing I like better than to read a novel, and then read the author's biography, and then piece together what they used from their real life. Well, there might be some things I like better... but anyway (please excuse me, it is now past 11:00 and my husband is snoring over there) the thing is... you can't be a slave to what actually happened. If you're a slave to it, and just try to recreate events as they occurred, it just won't work. There won't be a story there. Also, if you are taking from your own life, it can be that much harder to have the perspective you need to turn it into fiction. That's why, if I'm using myself, I always find it much easier to draw on long past events, or aspects of myself that are no longer like me because I've changed so much as a person and wouldn't do THAT anymore.
And then of course there's always those husbands to worry about. And ex-boyfriends. And mothers. And children. And things can get sensitive, and feelings can get hurt. So, yes, you've got to transform it. It's not truly fiction until that husband character isn't your husband and the main character isn't you. Because you REALLY don't want to reveal something about yourself that you don't want anyone to know! Then you'd have to sue yourself. Or at the very least stop talking to yourself. (And stop thinking to yourself?) Hopefully, you would make up with yourself eventually, though. Okay. Time for bed. I hope I didn't reveal something about myself that I'll regret when I look at this tomorrow after a good night's sleep. Maybe I should just say I NEVER use myself, and leave it at that…
Posted by at 11:27 PM | Comments (3)
Comments
LOL Stephanie! To soothe your budding curiosity, Sweetness, Light and Fish are nicknames, more because I like the gentle sarcasm of Sweetness and Light, and Fish is just a cute nickname for my sweetie. Besides, I think that if the girls decide to sue me later in life, the use of the nicknames might just help me temper the financial damage they'll do! :)
Posted by: Lani at March 14, 2005 11:04 AM
That's wise advice, Stephanie! If I use something from real life, by the time it ends up in a book it's completely transformed into something unrecognizable from the original event or person :-)
Michelle
Posted by: Michelle C at March 15, 2005 10:35 AM
Hee! I hope everyone in the class reads this! That's pretty much how I did it -- since 25 years have elapsed since my circus days, I'm sure my memory filter is clogged enough to make it way more fiction than memoir. (BTW, I'm enjoying the class a lot, my relative silence in chat notwithstanding...)
Posted by: Bozoette Mary at March 15, 2005 11:01 AM
