[Miriamele]

I did actually think of another sort-of-related issue: has anyone else rationalized a very painful relationship situation with an "at least I'll be able to write about this"? Art mitigating life, or something

Yikes. That type of "inspiration" works for some, but I don't think I want to relive any of my painful relationship situatons through my writing! :eek: (Although I did used to write the typical angst-filled free verse when I was in university.)

Writing, like reading, is really an escape for me...there's so much crap I've put up with from my family that I'm always trying (not always successfully) to forget about. Writing about it would be too painful. For example, I got in a HUGE fight with my father over the weekend...oh boy, he said some crazy things that would really be entertaining to put into a story but I absolutely don't want to do that. I'm trying to forget about it already.

You know what they say anyway, "Truth is stranger than fiction?" I believe that. If I tried to put versions of my family members into a story, or had characters say things that my parents say in real life, everyone who read it would say that the characters were ridiculous, one-dimensional and unbelievable. Because my parents are ridiculous, one-dimensional and unbelievable. :D :D

[Radthorne]

I think that what we write can quite often be heavily influenced, if even indirectly, from events we have personally experienced. Not that we try to recapture the exact event, but that some essence of it, whether the physical or emotional part, becomes an inspirtation for a scene or some element of a story.

Sometimes it is little things. My father was primarily psychologically abusive, but from time to time he could become physically abusive as well. Once when I was about 12 or 13 he grabbed the front of my shirt, shaking me about, but in the process he had also grabbed a goodly chunk of the skin on my chest. The bruises from his fingers appeared for days afterwards. I used that bit, of someone grabbing someone else so hard that the recipient could feel the fingers digging into his skin, in my first book as a bit of vivid imagery. There are a number of other things like that, where I took a portion of some experience and then extrapolated it into something else.

One can't have experienced everything one writes about (whacking off demon heads with swords, say...) and thus we have to be imaginative; but when one has experienced loss, love, anger, etc., the writing from the heart can also inspire us to some of our greatest creativity and emotional impact.

[Miriamele]

One can't have experienced everything one writes about (whacking off demon heads with swords, say...) and thus we have to be imaginative; but when one has experienced loss, love, anger, etc., the writing from the heart can also inspire us to some of our greatest creativity and emotional impact.

Well said. :)