Last night I re-watched the movie Never Been Kissed starring Drew Barrymore. Although I’ve seen it at least a dozen times, I watched now with a new point of view - a writer’s point of view.
There’s a quote toward the end of the movie that states, “Someone once told me to write well, you have to write what you know, and this is what I know.” It’s a bit spooky when I heard this line from my new perspective. Although writing fiction, clearly there are some stories loosely based on my past experience. The fun comes by taking what you know…and fictionalizing it. The danger can be a clouded sense of reality while in the head of a character.
While writing my novel, I’ve discovered something strange. If not careful, one can slip into a character’s life – while living one’s own. I call it creative research. Others in my life call it darn right insanity. At times it feels a bit like having a double personality. Surely, actors experience this as well when throwing themselves into their role. The other day, I accidently called my husband by the name of a character in my novel. He looked at me as if I were on another planet.
My novel is based on a middle aged woman’s reflections on her formative years - high school, college and young married life. A typical coming of age story and a quest for a woman to understand how she got to be the woman she is today. Sure…I write what I know, but the characters and experiences are fictionalized.
The process of writing naturally draws me to life experiences from over twenty years ago. What happened to these former people in my young life? What are they like today? Did the doctor in training that pursued me in college find his perfect trophy wife? Is The Beautiful Man that rejected me still beautiful… or he is bald, fat and ugly?, etc.
Life is not like writing fiction. You can’t just make things up as you go.
So tell me fans… Is it important to understand who the former people that shaped your young life have become today? Or… do you just leave them as they are cemented in your memory?
Please comment. I want your opinion.
Hi, this is TJ! I was thinking that you could incorporate both scenarios into your novel. I am still only a teenager but i am guessing that you when you get older you find out what happened to certain people along with others who still remain as they were in your memory
ReplyDeleteYes and no, I believe thinking back there has always been the good and bad times and I believe when adding former peaople, traits and memories to a novel u would need to let your imgination run. Wether they were the popular girl that u didnt like or the girl that every one made fun of. You run into that popular girl everyone liked and see her working at mcdonalds, already been divorced, and looking very run down. While you see the girl that was wearing dirty clothes everyday and was an easy target for people now working in a school or hospital. You add them to your novel (afterall everyone you have met has had some form of shaping who you are today) but remember they may have turned out to be a different person now, than how you remeber them in your past. hmmm, this is just my initial thought on this. May comment again later after doing some thinking as you did from a different point of view. Kind of like past, present, and future. It would probably take me 3 years to write what you do in 4 months.
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