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Writing With Courage



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Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:57 pm
deleted3 says...



Hey all you YWSers!

Quick intro, I'm 25 years old, African and female, I've been a member for awhile, have recently returned from a lengthy hiatus, and I'm intending to interact a lot more again :-) I try my hand at short stories, scripts, novels, articles and poetry, and would like to spend my life exploring every type of creative writing there is.

I have had a taste of the elixir of getting published, and I want mooooore... :shock: Feel free to read my published article on my blog: http://ekarimbvundula.blogspot.com/p/my-first-published-article.html


The topic I want to discuss is to do with courage when writing. Those with any creative writing experience at all will know that the most powerful work comes from personal emotions and experiences. It's first-hand research, if you will, and it doesn't get more realistic than that. Has anyone ever written something powerful, but it's almost too personal to publish? Or perhaps it's not personal in the sense that it happened to you, but is at odds with your perceived persona.

For example, you create a fictional character who is a lot angrier/seductive/evil/depressed than you are, do you ever worry that the people in your life who would judge you for even thinking those things if they read it? If so, how do you muster up the courage to get your best writing out there, no matter how risqué it may be?

Another question to ponder is, what about creating characters that are heavily based on people you know? Do you worry that you could hurt someone's feelings if they ever read about it?
Love to Live, Live to Love <--- My Motto
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Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:23 pm
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Lava says...



Helloello!

Welcome back! I'll check out your blog. But to address your uestion,

do you ever worry that the people in your life who would judge you for even thinking those things if they read it?

I've never thought that actually. It kinda took me by surprise this question. In fact, I've been on a recent character-exploring spree with my writing and I'm working on some lots of interesting characters.
I find that it keeps me interested in writing; and I've never really wondered about this.
~
Pretending in words was too tentative, too vulnerable, too embarrassing to let anyone know.
- Ian McEwan in Atonement

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Thu Dec 27, 2012 4:58 pm
crossroads says...



I think of that sometimes. The first thing, quite often, actually, as I too tend to create characters and situations that some people may find strange, insulting (?), taboo or whatever.. But I think we shouldn't worry about that, especially if we've written more than one character and more than one story - every reader in the right mind should understand that, if we'd make characters at our image over and over, they'd all be the same.. And that shouldn't be any writer's goal, right?
And any writer should understand that his/her duty is to make their character breathe, to create them as real as they can be..
After all, we can always put ourself in more than one character, giving each of them enough personality of their own so no one can suspect :)

Though, perhaps I'm this much without worries because not many people around me could ever know just how similar I am to my characters..

As for the other thing, I've never really used people around me to create characters. Now and then, a person in my story appears for whom a reader says 'that is totally ...!' .. But I never did it on purpose :p Though I did find myself in an awkward situation once: a friend of mine told me about his experience with his girlfriend (a really bad one, with illness and all kinds of things involved), and it was so alike my scenario that I didn't know whether to even tell him about it O_o I wrote it the way I imagined it anyway, of course.. But it was really weird, and I hope he doesn't feel hurt or betrayed or anything if he ever reads it :s
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Thu Dec 27, 2012 8:03 pm
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Rosendorn says...



I'm going to take one question at a time.

Has anyone ever written something powerful, but it's almost too personal to publish?

Depends on what you mean by "powerful." I've written some pieces that are highly cathartic, but I'm not sure how powerful it is.

Mostly, that comes under poetry. I use poetry for catharsis so I don't really focus on making it polished and pretty. But I wouldn't call it powerful.

For example, you create a fictional character who is a lot angrier/seductive/evil/depressed than you are, do you ever worry that the people in your life who would judge you for even thinking those things if they read it? If so, how do you muster up the courage to get your best writing out there, no matter how risqué it may be?

Most people accept that characters are characters, and only reflect a small part of the author. The individual characters themselves are accepted to be individually characters.

The place you get Statements are where you stand on various political issues. If you have a gay couple, for example. That is where people will assume you're pro-gay rights.

Another question to ponder is, what about creating characters that are heavily based on people you know? Do you worry that you could hurt someone's feelings if they ever read about it?

This is where things get tricky.

If you do it nearly verbatim with just a few name changes, that is where you can make people feel bad. What you have to do is change things up so it's a different situation, different variables. You can take some inspiration from it, but for tact's sake, it's better to change up the situation so it doesn't look like you're using their lives simply to transcribe into a story.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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Thu Dec 27, 2012 11:04 pm
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Kale says...



Concerning the last question, this thread here covers it wonderfully.

To answer your first question, I never share personal pieces until I grow fairly unattached to them. They're personal for very good reasons, and if someone were to critique them while I'm still strongly attached (as helpful as they're trying to be), it would hurt more than help. This is a good habit to develop, and it'll save you a lot of pain in the long run.

As for your second question, I don't worry about that. If the person reading my works decide to project those things they see in those characters onto me, that's their problem and not mine. There's no use worrying about it as people will be people, and there's no controlling that.

Just write, and if you're really worried about how the people close to you will react, don't show them your writing or leave it around where they can find it.
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Fri Dec 28, 2012 8:46 am
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deleted3 says...



Quite varied responses here!

Lava wrote:I've never thought that actually. It kinda took me by surprise this question. In fact, I've been on a recent character-exploring spree with my writing and I'm working on some lots of interesting characters.
I find that it keeps me interested in writing; and I've never really wondered about this.


I think you're the lucky one Lava ... In my opinion, the degree that you're affected depends on your individual lives, specifically how supportive your friends and family are.

AriaAdams wrote: ....a friend of mine told me about his experience with his girlfriend (a really bad one, with illness and all kinds of things involved), and it was so alike my scenario that I didn't know whether to even tell him about it O_o I wrote it the way I imagined it anyway, of course.. But it was really weird, and I hope he doesn't feel hurt or betrayed or anything if he ever reads it :s


That's an interesting story. Sometimes weird coincidences like that happen, and I can see your dilemma in trying to explain that your writing came before your friend's real-life situation. Good luck if you are ever faced with that challenge.

Rosey Unicorn wrote:.......You can take some inspiration from it, but for tact's sake, it's better to change up the situation so it doesn't look like you're using their lives simply to transcribe into a story.


Unicorn, by powerful, I mean emotionally impacting in some way, profound, and likely to create a feeling and/or reaction from readers. I see what you mean about the political type of writing, it's a given that as a writer you'd need to prepare for controversy. And about using other people's lives, it makes sense that there is a certain unmeasurable amount that you can morally "borrow" before it becomes an unauthorised biography.

Kyllorac wrote:.....If the person reading my works decide to project those things they see in those characters onto me, that's their problem and not mine. There's no use worrying about it as people will be people, and there's no controlling that.....


I like that philosophy Kyllorac - living it is another story... For me, my writing has not always been understood because I'm from a family of business people, doctors... people who spend more time in the real world than in their own heads. So I guess part of my fear comes from pre-empting a negative response which I admit may never come... I guess the only way to find out is to just write true to myself!

Thanks for the link to the thread about the morality of using real people in fiction. I learnt a lot, and I think the conclusion is that it depends on the situation and the writer's relationship with the people.
Love to Live, Live to Love <--- My Motto
http://ekarimbvundula.blogspot.com <--- My Blog
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Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:22 am
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deleted3 says...



Maybe this sums it up :wink:

Image
Love to Live, Live to Love <--- My Motto
http://ekarimbvundula.blogspot.com <--- My Blog
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Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:28 pm
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Carlito says...



I'm going to answer the part about turning people you know into characters because it most pertains to me...

I am currently working on (and will try to publish) a novel in which the vast majority of the characters are based on my friends and people I went to high school with. In early drafts the characters were basically the same people as the real people but as the story developed the characters morphed to fit the needs of the story.

Someone above (Rosey?) mentioned that you can't really make characters exactly like real people because that poses a variety of challenges and I agree with this. I've questioned my novel a million times and I'm still worried about what friends will say if/when it's published and they see similarities in themselves to characters.

The way I rationalize it in my head is that the character is not the real person. The character is merely a reflection of the real person with changes made to make the story what it needs to be. The character is not how I really see the real person. The character is a character that happens to have qualities that are similar to a real person.

I think it's okay to use real people as inspiration, but at some point you need to verify that the character is in fact a character and is not a copy of someone you know.
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Tue Jan 08, 2013 2:33 am
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Paracosm says...



For me, every ounce of my writing contains a little bit of me in it. Every character, every word, comes from somewhere in me. It makes it hard to share some of my writing because of how much I put into it.

A lot of my characters do carry traits I don't carry. I can never be a different race from what I am, I can never change where I come from, I can never change my family, so I have to guess at a lot of the influences many of my characters take on.

I never let myself worry about whether something I write hurts someone's feelings or not. I'm a selfish person. I don't often base my characters on people I know, but once my sister thought she was similar to a character in my NaNo novel. I just then realized how similar she was. So I told her no, it's not you, but she is similar, isn't she? She was a little hurt when that character died, but we joked around about it for the most part. In the end, if you do base a character on someone, at some point your artistic license has to be taken into account, and some things MUST be changed.

Anyway, in the end, I try to make sure my writing represents my ideals and virtues, but also expresses unique ideas. I share my writing when I'm ready, and not a second sooner or later. Whether you share your writing with your family or not is up to you, personally, I avoid it.
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