Add in Your life

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Aren’t you delighted to see me back after a summer away from talking about how to be a better writer?  What can I say, it’s been great to take a break and focus on other things for a while.  To add to the experiences in my life.  What experiences did you add in your life?

My life over the summer was filled with a teen busy landscaping and visiting friends, a hubby working, visiting a friend from CA, and gardening. We took in the beach and some sights and kept ourselves entertained well enough.  🙂  Even a week away for camping was found. 

Anyways, I’ve kept up one of my joys over the summer of participating in Five Minute Fridays.  Almost every week I partake and turn a one word prompt into a poem.  It allows me to do what I’m going to be talking about today.  Insert my life into my writing.   Letting a world flow through your mind until it strikes a chord…using the chord from my life to respond to a simple word prompt.

Insert My Life in Writing?

Write what you know, it’s an adage that writers are often told.  In every book I read on writing it’s repeated: Write what you know.  It doesn’t mean that you have to tell your life story, but you use your life and what you know into the stories that you tell. 

For instance, today my lad was telling me about a character he would like to create.  A cat, who is a warrior, but is only good with a crossbow.  He doesn’t fight well hand to hand, has no knife, or other weapon, just his crossbow.   He would be about two feet tall but highly effective.  Not a talker, just a crossbow expert.

I told him this character sounds like a fascinating fellow and would love to know more about him.  Is his whole race of people the same or is he an odd-ball?  What causes him to not talk much?  That question caused the thoughts to spiral.  It’s SUCH FUN!

We took the time to explore a bit where such an idea came from: his cats, the games he plays, his friends, his interests in life etc.   All helped him spawn this imaginative creature. 

Don’t Short Change Yourself

It’s hard sometimes you know, to figure out how the events, thoughts, conversations etc of your life, can add depth to your writing.  The things that we do, the very conversations, and fun, and even the sorrows that we experience, these are the well-spring of our well-written work. 

Regardless if our focus is on poetry, on non-fiction or creative writing.  If you take the time to add in your life, your writing will be full of meaning and experiences only YOU can create, because only you have lived your life.  Don’t discount your experiences in any way. 

Live your life, live it well.  Use your life to make what you do even better.  Take your love of fishing to show the excitement of a child catching their first fish.  Use your confusion over the right outfit to wear to showcase the angst of getting ready for a date.  Apply your laughter over a night out, your disappointment in a movie, your fear at stepping outside of your comfort zone, the smells of campfire and how different that is from burning rubbish.  Growing up on a farm or growing up in town…they bring a richness we can’t always fully grasp.  Choose your words wisely, sift through your memories, and share them well.  Therefore enabling help us see the world more clearly.