How much does your life get into your writing?

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Giftorcurse
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17 Jun 2012, 6:27 pm

Ever heard of the trope Real Life Writes the Plot? That's me in a nutshell. In a sense, all of my characters are alternate personalities of me; I have such sympatico with them, even the nasty ones, that I can easily become them at any given moment. I guess my writing is a form of self-therapy, enabling me to express the issues that I'm going through, and my characters are actors in psychodramas. Unfortunately, I hardly have the time or the courage to get words down on white. A lot of the time, I'm afraid that I may not like what I'm writing, that I'll tear it all up in a fit of blind rage.


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Mitsuki
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17 Jun 2012, 7:18 pm

Giftorcurse wrote:
Ever heard of the trope Real Life Writes the Plot? That's me in a nutshell. In a sense, all of my characters are alternate personalities of me; I have such sympatico with them, even the nasty ones, that I can easily become them at any given moment. I guess my writing is a form of self-therapy, enabling me to express the issues that I'm going through, and my characters are actors in psychodramas. Unfortunately, I hardly have the time or the courage to get words down on white. A lot of the time, I'm afraid that I may not like what I'm writing, that I'll tear it all up in a fit of blind rage.


I think this is a potentially a good thing to have your life reflected in your work paricularly regarding people. I think it allows for better character development it may allow you to write more in depth about a person their intentions, feelings, reactions etc which could be difficult perhaps. I am unsure about the best way to put it but i think in writing by an Aspie ,while we understand social relationships etc on an intellectual level maybe usinng your own experinces help with writing interactions in real time.

Hope this helps, good luck with your writing x



Titangeek
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17 Jun 2012, 9:14 pm

My life doesn't go into my writing, what I wish was my life goes into my writing.


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Bun
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18 Jun 2012, 1:48 pm

It does.

I'll quote something I've said to a friend: 'You know, I'd consider all of my recent work somewhat autobiographical. It has real jokes I liked, real bits of conversations I've had, my moods etc. That's odd, but nice. Recently I had to stop myself working on something, in fear it'll turn out sameish to other works... I feel less attached than before, I've told you I'm more able to separate the chars from myself. But it's because I feel more endorsed when the situations seem imaginary, and for a lot of reasons I think that now I've become more realistic and I relate more to what I already know from personal experience'.


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Ganondox
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18 Jun 2012, 3:52 pm

I try to keep real life as far away from my writing as possible.


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TeaEarlGreyHot
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18 Jun 2012, 6:05 pm

I only write what I know.


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Kraichgauer
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19 Jun 2012, 2:35 am

There have been plenty of times when I've found that - quite unintentionally - the characters and their personal histories I write about mirror my own life. I guess my subconscious works overtime when I write.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer



Zokk
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19 Jun 2012, 4:40 am

Titangeek wrote:
My life doesn't go into my writing, what I wish was my life goes into my writing.

This. So much this.


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diniesaur
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19 Jul 2012, 2:02 am

I can't write about things I don't understand, but that doesn't mean I base my characters and events on real life, although some of my novels come from dreams I have.



redrobin62
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20 Jul 2012, 1:02 am

@diniesaur - what novels have you written?



xxZeromancerlovexx
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20 Jul 2012, 9:57 am

My life does not go into writing at all because I can't write anything good. I get ideas but I can't put them on paper because of my stupid ex-therapist.


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Ganondox
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20 Jul 2012, 12:41 pm

None. I hate putting my life in my writing.


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Kraichgauer
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20 Jul 2012, 1:20 pm

xxZeromancerlovexx wrote:
My life does not go into writing at all because I can't write anything good. I get ideas but I can't put them on paper because of my stupid ex-therapist.


May I ask what your ex-therapist did to you?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer



jagatai
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20 Jul 2012, 3:22 pm

The thing I like least about my writing is it seems to be too much a reflection of me. And I'm kind of a boring person. Subsequently my characters are not very interesting.

I think it would be great to be able to observe the life of another person and write a character that grew out of other people rather than out of my own insular personality. The best I have been able to do is to take some aspect of myself and push it so far to an extreme that it appears different from me.

Actually, that might be an interesting exercise... to force myself to write a character grossly different from myself. I might not have the understanding of what drives that character but if I just write the actions and ignore any attempts at understanding the character's internal life, I might be able to do something entertaining. For example, I could write a story about an adventurer. It might be a way to try to understand a person who is adventurous.


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BrandonSP
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20 Jul 2012, 5:53 pm

Titangeek wrote:
My life doesn't go into my writing, what I wish was my life goes into my writing.

Same here. It's especially true whenever I attempt to write romance. The romances I write about are the ones I wish I could have myself, and the male lead often has some of my own character flaws.


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xxZeromancerlovexx
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20 Jul 2012, 7:44 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:
xxZeromancerlovexx wrote:
My life does not go into writing at all because I can't write anything good. I get ideas but I can't put them on paper because of my stupid ex-therapist.


May I ask what your ex-therapist did to you?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer


It's a long story I don't want to tell. Basically she's immune and blind to everything that's "dark".


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