 For Authors: February 26, 2014 Issue [#6180] |
  For Authors
This week: Life's Experiences Edited by: Gaby  
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Hey, all! Thank you for having me as a guest editor in this For Authors Newsletter issue.
We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again - and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
~ Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Following the Equator, 1897
Tell Youth to play with Wine and Love
and never bear away the scars!
I may as well tilt up the sky
and yet try not to spill the stars.
~ Frederic Ridgely Torrence, The House of a Hundred Lights: A Psalm of Experience After Reading a Couplet of Bidpai, 1899
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Coincidentally, on today's date, sixteen years ago, I stepped foot onto the land where dreams come true. At least that's what was said in the movie Pretty Woman. Back then, I wrote poetry in German. No English to speak of let alone to write. Only the basics. My writing and I have come a long way, but never did I push my words to take shape. It had to come from within.
Throughout the years on the site, I've shared many of my life's fortunes and misfortunes. I'm not the type of person to shy away, but even I keep certain things to myself. Perhaps, some parts of our lives aren't worth the mention or they're too painful to share them with others. Whatever the reason, we all do it. And yet, many of us write about places we know, have traveled to, have seen with our own eyes. Everything else comes after that. We can twist the truth, change the names, create characters with specific people in mind. Our imagination gives us the freedom to do as we'd like.
Does a certain amount of your writing come from personal experience?
Did it change over time?
Does your writing get affected by your emotions and things happening in your life?
My guess is, if you're a beginner, the answer to the first question is yes. Most of us do start there. We know ourselves the best. Everything else comes later. The genre play, dabbing your pen into different directions and creating characters you didn't think could or would ever exist. Nevertheless, we use life to inspire us.
So, have you written a story about something that's personal to you? Or are you playing with the idea of writing about a particular moment in time, but your heart just won't let go of its secrets? Would you try?
I ask because the only way to really open yourself up to the writing world is to let your life be your writing guide. Don't shy away just because you're afraid of what others may think of you. Change the character's names, twist the story the way you would have liked that particular moment to have happened. Anything is possible!
There is a reason why when we review items, we feel as if the writer wrote the story from their own personal experience. It may not have anything to do with them, but if their writing is compelling, then it leads the reader to believe otherwise. If I were you, I'd take that as a compliment. Words are meant to inspire compassion and understanding in others. That alone is a sign that you're on the right path with your writing. Don't disregard it and don't think that people are unable to see what you saw. We all have our different views and opinions, but it's not easy to evoke certain emotions with writing that doesn't pertain to us personally.
Give this a try! Write something personal in the first person POV, then write the same thing in the third person and see if you get the same reaction from your readers. I'd go as far as writing a fictional story in the first person POV and nonfiction in the third person. Not only will you see the difference, but it will also help you with your writing and which is more comfortable for you.
'til next time!
~ Gaby 
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