Friday, January 19, 2018

Real life Inspires Stories

The thing that most immersed me in the joy of reading was girls' series books such as Nancy Drew, the Dana Girls, etc. I devoured them from age 8 up. I was especially intrigued by the Judy Bolton Books. The publisher declared on the book jackets that each book was based on something which really happened. Often the author, Margaret Sutton, would add a note at the beginning of the book explaining the event which sparked the story. The first book, The Vanishing Shadow, was based on a real flood which she survived as a child--the Austin Damn breaking. I always thought, how exciting! As an author, I soon realized that my own stories often had something from my real life woven into them, too. As a teacher I was part of the negotiations team in my school district and I used some of those experiences in my traditional romance "Negotiating Love." As a member of the board of my local animal shelter for many years, I was aware of the amount of abandoned cats in the area and a cat became an important character in my book "Setting the Stage for Love." We authors use bits and pieces of our own lives and weave them into our stories--sometimes they inspire the whole book! If you've seen the movie "The Man Who Invented Christmas" you know that "A Christmas Carol" was inspired by a character Charles Dickens heard about, a miser whom people were discussing as he unashamedly listened in. Lots of real events make it into the fictional world!

11 comments:

  1. Interesting look at what goes into the making of a story. I think most of us use bits and pieces of our lives in our books. How could we not? And, if we didn't, what would we write about? Experience is our raw material. Nice post, Roni.

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  2. I can relate, Roni. I devoured the girls' series books when I was a young reader too. In fact, I think the Cheri Ames nurse series played a part in my later pursuing a nursing career in addition to my work as a writer.

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    1. Real life inspiration for both your career and your writing Sydell! Thanks!

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    3. Real life inspiration for both your writing and your career! Thanks Sydell!

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  3. Hi Roni! All of Margaret Sutton's family knew to alert her if we encountered something mysterious that could be used in a story! When I edited THE STRANGE LIKENESS, Judy Bolton #39, I made sure to include things that really happened such as the theft of two of my antique dolls and the way the dolls revealed their names. My stolen dolls were never found, but one nice thing about fiction is you can create a happy ending! I also included my mother's favorite game: scrabble!

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    1. Oh that's fascinating Lindsay! I'm sorry your stolen dolls were never found though.

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  4. Love your post. Like you, I believe authors have a hard time not including personal experiences in their books, especially how our characters view the world. Thanks for the great post.

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  5. This was a fun post, Roni. I agree that most writers include their own life experiences and actually, I think it makes for a better book. If the writer knows about the subject from experience, it gives the subject authenticity. I certainly use the fact that I'm a lawyer and have represented kids and NJ's child protection agency.

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