Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

I just asked on Twitter if anyone wanted me to Vlog about anything in particular. I usually keep things alittle off writing on Vlogs and keep that for, blogs. Lol. But someone asked me:

Can life experiences make good YA novels as well as autobiographies?

I'm gonna be talking about YA novels. But I was wondering how many of your novels were spawned from real life experiences? (YA or not)

Let me know :3

I have travelled to 455 cities and towns in 55 different countries. I've lived in 17 different cities in four different continents.

Whether writing for the older market, middle grade or YA, I only write fiction based on fact. All my stories are based in the places I’ve been and describe the setting and things that I’ve seen.

I haven't been to nearly as many places as Hamilton, but my current novel takes place in my hometown. :3 Much of the second act takes place in New York City, but I've been there before. That's what motivated me to take my characters there. :3

I was on the school newspaper, so some of my characters are on a paper and because of their involvement they go on a New York City trip--like I did. Plus my artistic interests are included in my story, too--Nelly likes to draw and Vladimir (my male lead) likes to write. I like to do both. :3

My locations are mostly made up, but the characters are built using bits and pieces of me or people I know or have read about. The hero of my story works as a metaphor for me. I'm neither a private investigator nor am I as smart as the character, but we share similar traits. Sometimes its on purpose and sometimes I only realize it after it's written.

Nothing is better than experience, but I don't think i have to get shot by a bullet to write about it.

Gareth wrote: "My locations are mostly made up, but the characters are built using bits and pieces of me or people I know or have read about. The hero of my story works as a metaphor for me. I'm neither a private..."

I write about the living dead and will try for as long as possible not to visit the 'other side' to gain personal experience.

The three main cities I wrote about in my first novel I've never lived in adn only one have I been to. But once you've been to certain places in Britain you've pretty much seen all of them lol

I like it when characters are a reflection of the author. I think it can make us be honest about our own flaws :3

I'm the same as Gareth: bits and pieces of places, characters or situations are taken from things I'm familiar with, but not enough to be obvious except to people I'm really close to.

I think you're right, though, Bisky: I've made a point to "know" all my characters flaws and weaknesses, and it's really hammered home some of my own to me. And I think that's your first step as a writer: being honest with yourself.

Yeah :3

Of course in my current contemporary romance series, North Texas is the setting. That's where I reside currently. Also my characters (female leads) tend to share similar hobbies or corporate background. I enjoy integrating my passion for the arts (music, film, design, and publishing), as well as my previous travels, cooking, and even crocheting, into my stories. It creates room to cross-sell, and you never know what will tug at a reader.

Thats very true :]

As I have only written one novel it is full of real life details in terms of locations and characters but the subject matter is murder and mayhem which is definitely all invented!

Atleast thats what you told the FBI when they came knocking! ;]

In any story, I ponder whether I wrote a fiction or did I actually write an autobiography.

A story's often fiction with some autobiographical segments.

I don't think any author can help but put a little of themselves into any story.

I write a lot about dysfunctional families and politics--my dad was a preacher.

Writing is the best therapy :]

Cheap too.

There is always a little bit of my experiences and knowledge in the stories. The locations are rather familiar to me - or complete fiction. (as stated in my short stories blog)
If I mention a coffee addict - this might be me... If I mention an awesome cook - this might well be my husband. ;)

I put a bit of myself in most of my characters - a trait, a favourite phrase, a conversation, a fear - although not enough for that character to be me! In a way, each of my characters are horcruxes :-) (Apologies for the HP reference, I watched The Deathly Hallows recently!)

OMG don't get me started on Harry Potter references. I gave some of my book to someone to read about a year ago.

"Ann, you can't use: It was as if they just apparated away."
"Why?"
"Because apparated is from Harry Potter."
"But it means... Dammit."

Bisky wrote: "OMG don't get me started on Harry Potter references. I gave some of my book to someone to read about a year ago.

"Ann, you can't use: It was as if they just apparated away."
"Why?"
"Because appara..."

LOL! It's a good word isn't it? And Shakespeare made up words that everyone uses now!

And the name Wendy didn't exist before PeterPan


Or twerk before miley cyrus... Yeah Actaully Im not gonna go there.

I don't think HP is old enough for the words to enter the lanuage yet :p

Hopefully 'twerking' will disappear again very soon!

At first I thought a Twerker was someone like me who works mostly through Twitter.

Seeing what the impending generation has for music (like with Miley Cyrus--what was she doing? Doing an ad for a strip club??) makes me glad I wasn't born any later. I actually wish I was born 10 years earlier or during my parents' generation. Yeah, I'd be balder, but that's O.K.

OMG lol the end of that paragraph xD

I think I was born at the perfect time tbh. I loved the 90s movies and tv shows I grew up with (and harry potter) I liked the music they had in my teens. I like the internet how it is now. If anything I would have liked to have been born 5 years earlier to really get stuck into YouTube when it first came out. But so far I'm doing alright I think.


I was just born in the wrong country lol

If me and Viking ever break up I think I would hide in my room until I had enough money to flee to NZ or somewhere lol

Annalisa wrote: "Hopefully 'twerking' will disappear again very soon!"

Twerking is the art of giving yourself a wedgy, without using your hands, while doing the Macarena.

I loved my 90s, too. :3

It wasn't until high school when everybody started having cell phones, unlike nowadays where 6-year-olds have their own electronic tablets. xD Growing up, I ways always outside, unlike nowadays where kids are in the house all the time. lol

New Zealand would be a great place x3

I think if we can remember dial-up Internet, we're going to be o.k. xD

Damn dial up internet. Lol.

Tbh it wasn't safe to play outside where I lived so I would stay inside watching tv, drawing and writing.

I've always wanted to visit there. As soon as I have enough money I'm going to spend Halloween in the states with my friend. She thinks I'm not going to want to leave, but we shall see. Its just my favourite holiday ever haha

I shouldn't slag off England too much, I miss British fashion SO much. Everyone here is so copy paste and the clothes are so expensive.

Hamilton wrote: "Annalisa wrote: "Hopefully 'twerking' will disappear again very soon!"

Twerking is the art of giving yourself a wedgy, without using your hands, while doing the Macarena."

Lol!

But the tongue thing is never explained, how does that aid twerking? Is it like a rudder?

You'd have fun during Halloween here. :3

I guess it depends where you are in the states that determines if you want to leave. People get very bored in the north/middle part of the country. But in another post you said you loved real snow. We get it as early as October and as late as April. We had like 18 inches of snow during a blizzard around April 15 this past spring. o.O

So maybe you wouldn't get bored. xD

I've seen some articles about London fashion. Seems more exciting than what people wear around here. lol

She lives in NC, and I curse ALOT irl. Can't help it. I met her mom and I felt like a little kid having to stop myself every five minutes :p But she says I still manage to sound classy and posh when I'm going for it haha.

That is alot of snow!

In London I expressed myself through how I dressed alot more than I do here. And I'm not really that expressive lol. I met a girl from France in my old scandianvian history course here and she stuck out like a sore thumb.

England is alittle more 'free' in that respect.

yeah i think alot of books are, I'd love to have some kind of magical annotation in novels that let me know if it actually happened to the author

I never thought of that they do don't they! Would be awesome to have something like that!

The prologue to A Precise Moment is 100% true (besides the moving part). Names were changed but the events happened.

Places I love tend to show up in stories and novels. Northern Michigan in general and Mackinac Island in particular keep popping up. Last June we drove from Ohio to Seattle and back. Now I have poems about the Rockies and deserts. *shrugs*

For me, not much. I suppose the odd place or character are based on my experiences, and the occasional story will be drawn from life, but overall no, they are entirely works of my fevered little brain.

That's really hard to say. I do tend to seek out unusual people and uncommon experiences in real life, but a lot of what I write is modeled onto a basic wire-frame of personal knowledge. One of my literary heroes was Ernest Hemingway, so I regrettably emulated him in many ways. I've lived hard, played hard, drank hard and gone through several relationships. A lot of that stuck and has to come out somewhere.

I couldn't have written anything in my twenties because i hadn't been anywhere or seen anything. I might have been able to start something in my thirties, but I was too busy continuing the party that had started in college. By my forties I couldn't drink any more, I was settled into a relationship, I'd travelled a little bit, and I'd read a whole bunch, so I was able to channel a lot of my life experiences into my novels. The Rock Series is based in Monterey, CA, near where I grew up in Salinas, and contains many references to places, people, sights and sounds from that area that I've personally experienced. The Bainbridge Killings is about Bainbridge Island, where I would like to sell my current house and move, but I didn't actually visit it until after I wrote my novel, but thanks to Google images I was able to give some very accurate descriptions, which i was real happy to find out when i finally got there. Throughout my novels you'll find descriptions of food, music, movies, and traveling that reflect my own experience. But I need to point out that all of my novels are thrillers that involve people getting killed in very bad ways, and those do not in any way, shape, or form reflect my own life experiences... maybe a few thoughts here and there, but no actual experiences in those areas....

I don't think age has anything to do with writing. I think its more to do with genre and imagination.

All my characters seem to be in their late twenties which still seems like 'adult' to me :p

Rick wrote: "I couldn't have written anything in my twenties because i hadn't been anywhere or seen anything. I might have been able to start something in my thirties, but I was too busy continuing the party t..."

I didn't have a lick of sense until I was thirty-five.

Bisky wrote: "I don't think age has anything to do with writing. I think its more to do with genre and imagination.

All my characters seem to be in their late twenties which still seems like 'adult' to me :p"

I would disagree that age is immaterial to storytelling. After all, why do fantasy stories always seem to include an old wise sage? But I do agree it's more pertinent to some genres than others. Clearly YA, romance, fantasy and sci-fi (to some degree)are made more vibrant by those who have not yet become too cynical to dream vividly and imagine wildly, without boundaries. Horror is an ageless, equal-opportunity genre as well. You're never too young to be terrifying.

Age is an interesting topic to address.

I am not old. But I've met a lot of very interesting people with storied backgrounds, had friends and loved ones suffer through awful tragedies and cruel life events, had friends die from things like overdoses and car wrecks and cancer, been crushed and uplifted by random chance and mere conversation, and a variety of miscellany that has colored my life and my perspective on the world.

It's not the years in the life, is the cliche.

I write extensively from personal experience, and the personal experiences described to me by others. Anything I've witnessed or experienced personally. Material and emotional honesty can make a good story great, I believe, and by incorporating pieces of your life you can ratchet up that sensation of authenticity.

Plus, it's so much easier to write about the things you know! Think of how much time you save!

Kevin wrote: "My book, Miedo is really all about me. I have listed it under fiction as a psychological thriller/horror because some of the things in it would just be far-fetched to so many people. I don't think ..."

When it comes to experiences from childhood, those are really fantastic reads because from a child POV, everything is big, scary, and a magical adventure. One of these days I'm going to write a series of some of the "adventures" I had growing up, and probably use myself as the MC.

I don't think there's any doubt that writing about your own life or using yourself as the MC isn't hard to do. By nature, authors tend to think of the "what ifs" in any given situation, and it bleeds through onto the page.

The REAL challenge is writing from a different POV, or using a MC that is nothing like you. Does it hinder the writing process some? Probably, because we have to stop and think just how they would react. Chances are, it won't be the same reaction you'd give. Yet at the same time, we can't disappoint the reader by having the MC do something completely stupid and uncharacteristic. (How many times have you yelled at a horror movie, "WTH are you DOING?!). It's a balance, that's for sure. :)

real life! ...my stories! 0% lol

My children's book "My First Travel Book" features my real travels during the tiresome process of relocating from Zimbabwe, Africa, due to political turmoil, leaving our home after a life time. With two suitcases we travelled, finding our home and a sense of belonging, now settled in the USA a land of opportunity for our children, which we are grateful for.

"How many times have you yelled at a horror movie, "WTH are you DOING?!)"

Why its taking me so long to edit :x lol

In the Amish fiction series I write I find it easy to write about rural life, farming and taking care of animals because I was raised on a farm and have the experience which helps me write the stories.