A few days ago my fellow SleuthSayer Michael Bracken posted a column about two stories he'd recently had published that drew heavily on his own life experiences. I suspect all of us have occasionally used our personal experiences to provide story material--and I seem to be doing it more often in recent years. Maybe because I'm getting older, and spending more time with my own memories. (Notice I didn't say daydreaming.)
Seriously, though, sometimes it does pay to write what you know--and what we know best are things that have happened to us.
One example of that was my story "Ship Island," which appeared this past Sunday in Issue #252 of Black Cat Weekly, and which, coincidentally, was Michael's pick-of-the-week.
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| Ship Island |
My first idea for that story came from a booksigning I did long ago in the town of Biloxi, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I met a lady there whose family had for many years run a passenger ferry back and forth to Ship Island, one of the barrier islands several miles offshore. I talked with her a long time, and found her tales interesting and delightful. I've always loved the Coast anyway, and had once lived down there for seven months, in an apartment on the beach, during my stay in the Air Force. I'd even been to Ship Island myself, on several occasions.
Anyhow, when I returned home from this signing, I did some research on the island and its history, and decided it'd be fun to write a mystery story about it, and specifically about Fort Massachusetts, a 19th-century brick fort that's still standing, on the west end of the island. It's a fascinating place to visit.
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| Fort Massachusetts |
I was already thinking, at that time, of doing some kind of story about a pair of lifelong rough-around-the-edges friends who reminded me a bit of Texas author Joe Lansdale's wonderful characters Hap and Leonard--and, as sometimes happens, these two guys I had created in my head wound up being the heroes of my newly-conceived Ship Island story. The plot is more than a little weird: They find, tucked away in a recently-deceased relative's possessions, a rough map pointing to a fortune in Spanish gold, supposedly buried long ago inside a Civil War-era fort on one end of an island off the Mississippi coast, and decide to secretly sail to the island, dig up the hidden gold, and become rich beyond their wildest dreams. Their grand adventure, however, turns out to be harder and more dangerous than they'd figured, since they soon discover they aren't the only ones with a map to the treasure.
Writing the story itself turned out to be not hard but easy--in fact, it was one of the easiest and most enjoyable stories I've ever written, and I think much of that was because of my own still-vivid memories of the island and the fort and the trip there and back. Also, I was comforted by the fact that most of the things I was describing were real and accurate because I had seen them firsthand. I wrote the whole story in one long sitting.
Fast-forwarding a while, I eventually sold that story to Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and when that magazine gasped its last breath and put all four feet in the air before "Ship Island" could be published, editor Michael Bracken suggested it for a future issue of Black Cat Weekly. (Thank you, old friend.)
Other stories that have relied a great deal on my own past were "Calculus 1" (The Saturday Evening Post), based on a cool but ill-advised college prank; "Jackpot Mode" (Strand Magazine) about an ATM system I worked with during my years at IBM; "The Winslow Tunnel" (Amazon Shorts), based on one of our family vacations; "Knight Music" (Woman's World), from my memories as part of an amateur band; "Cargo" (Black Cat Weekly), about a particularly strange night during my Air Force years; "The Jumper" (Crimestalker Casebook), based on yet another misguided college experience; and many others.
Now, my questions for today. Have any of you, my fellow writers, incorporated your own memories in your short stories or novels? If so, did you find it hard to fictionalize those incidents, and maybe make the events more interesting than they were in real life? Did you have fun doing it? How often do you seem to use your past experiences as story fodder? I know some of you have responded to similar questions asked in Michael's column the other day, but I'd love to hear more examples.
Meanwhile, if you see this issue of Black Cat Weekly, I hope you'll like my buried-treasure story.
And--before I forget--HAPPY 250th BIRTHDAY, US of A!
Have I ever! Just from working at a Mall Food court 35 years ago (Yikes!) I got background for a bunch of stories I've written about a couple of guys who work in one. But this is a magical mall in a magical world. (Among other things, you can buy pet dragons and a crystal ball that works!)
ReplyDeleteYou can't buy pet dragons at all food courts??
DeleteJeff, I think jobs that feature a lot of interaction with other people, as that one you had probably did, are always good sources of story material. And yes, that stuff stays in your head for a long time!
Thanks as always.
My novella Aztec Midnight was loosely based on the three weeks my wife and I spent in a small village in central Mexico. The folks there were wonderful hosts who took us into their homes and treated us to fascinating tales of spirits and gangs.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense, Mike! Sounds like that trip should be filed under "research," right?
DeleteI forgot to mention that one of the Alaska trips I made while with IBM led directly to a Woman's World story, and a business trip to Hong Kong became a story I sold to AHMM. It's always tempting to use unusual experiences in our short stories.
Thanks for the note!
To quote from our first Crimeucopia - The Lady Thrillers 'Editorial of sorts':
ReplyDeleteAs most authors will tell you, when you start out writing fiction there will come a time when someone will dust off and decant that old adage which goes:
'Always write about what you know.'
Oh dear.
Another adage is that 'Little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice.'
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What does that say about the 16 women authors contained within these pages?
(Just saying, is all... :) )
John Connor
Chief Cook and Bottlewasher
Murderous Ink Press
Hey John -- You can never have too many adages. Or too many quotes from Crimeucopia!
DeleteThanks for stopping in, here!
Some of us are wanderers and some homebodies. I'm squarely in the homebody camp. When I had to move out of a historic condominium building that felt more like home than any place I'd ever lived, I treated my homesickness with writing. Eventually, the short story set in that building grew to a novella and then to a full novel. I'm querying agents now, but even if it never makes it to print, it's done its job.
ReplyDeleteYep, it served its purpose.
DeleteThink of it this way: Writing about things we loved long ago is a way to make those memories live on.
Good to hear from you, Bev. Take care!
John, retrieving more and more of those fascinating memories as you get older is absolutely not daydreaming, whether or not you've used the details as material yet or ever will. It's buried treasure. Enjoy it as you dig it up!
ReplyDeleteOr if it is, yay daydreaming!
DeleteI guess you're right, Liz. Either way, I do a lot of it. Napping too. And that stuff definitely IS buried treasure.
DeleteMany of my memories, alas, aren't interesting enough (at least to anyone else) to serve as a story, but embellishing a little is part of the fun of writing stories. Actually, embellishing a lot, but you know what I mean.
John, I am sitting here trying to think of a time when I pulled from my own real life, and do you know, I can't? I got into writing fiction as a teen because I wanted to escape real life (mentally ill brother - sad home.) I may set things in places I have been, but the plots and characters are from my imagination. (Obviously, I need more excitement in my life!)
ReplyDeleteHey Mel. See my response to Liz, above. My experiences aren't all that exciting either, I assure you, but boy I sure can add some excitement to them in my stories.
DeleteAs for being an escape from real life, you're certainly right, there. I treat it as exactly that. But while I too create characters from my imagination, I also often base them on composites of some of the weird characters I know and have known. (Then again, I'm from the Deep South, so weird characters--including myself--are easy to find.)
As for plots, yes, my plots are mostly from the scary depths of my imagination. I think plotting is absolutely the most fun part of writing. That, and creating dialogue.
Thank you, as always, for these thoughts.
A lot of my recent novellas culled from my own life. They all stem from manuscripts concerning my Cerebral Palsy ordeals and my brother's Autism. They also combine elements of my mother studying and working while supporting us and eventually to the campgrounds we travel to. Combining that with a Crime/Mystery/Detective element, which itself from a short a short story I entered into a Bouchercon contest at the recommendation of a friend who passed away last year. Some elements have been painful and others have been fun. It's the path I'm on.
ReplyDeleteJustin, I'm sure your unique look at those issues contributes a great deal to your stories, and all that traveling you've told me about has certainly given you some rich memories. I wish you the very best with all your writing projects!
DeleteAlmost all my Linda Thompson, Clerk of Courts for Laskin, SD, stories were based on some memory I have. And other stories on dreams I've had.
ReplyDeleteEve, I figured many of your stories came from those experiences. I can only imagine the things you've seen and heard there. As for dreams, I'm with you on that--I think vivid dreams are a huge help to a fiction writer. (And I need all the help I can get . . .)
DeleteThank you as always. Have a great Fourth!