Probably The Dumbest Thing You'll Read All Day

[unregistered]

 

[elfin_odalisque]

I don't see your problem.

Writing from experience is surely a good base for fiction.

Not writing about real people is what most writers do.

Take your experience, apply it to fictional characters and add a bit of imagination.

 

[unregistered]

 

[TxRad]

Maybe it's a fault in my perception, or just my personal fetish creeping into my thought process. So, let me ask, what percentage -guesstimate only- of stories here are "true".

Define "True".

Based on something that happened maybe but "True" all the way through? Not many, if any.

Most things that are true are either short or boring to anyone not directly involved.

My 'Memories of' group of stories are as tue as I can make them but still have an interesting story. It's not as easy as it sounds or looks.

 

[Hypoxia]

Past, present, and (unlikely) future partners appear in my tales, as do my and others' experiences, real or imagined. Those real or imagined partners and events are usually twisted a bit for literary purposes, although some of my pieces are straight reporting. Some players I *dare* not depict, not if I wish to survive. Some secrets must be kept.

Does my current partner appear in my LIT stories? Yes, disguised. Would they recognize the portrayals? More by context than character, probably. Would they be pleased? Probably not with the storylines.

OP: Write what and who you know, or fake it.

 

[TxRad]

Past, present, and (unlikely) future partners appear in my tales, as do my and others' experiences, real or imagined. Those real or imagined partners and events are usually twisted a bit for literary purposes, although some of my pieces are straight reporting. Some players I *dare* not depict, not if I wish to survive. Some secrets must be kept.

Does my current partner appear in my LIT stories? Yes, disguised. Would they recognize the portrayals? More by context than character, probably. Would they be pleased? Probably not with the storylines.

OP: Write what and who you know, or fake it.

Or those who you want to know. People watching can be so much fun for a porn writer.

 

[unregistered]

 

[TxRad]

This! Right here. Even my "true life experience" stories are only 80 to 90 percent true; yet to write about misplacing the handcuff key or the quick link the gets twisted in the rope and won't quick anything!

Maybe I need to see thing more as "based on" or "inspired by".

Misplacing the handcuff key on purpose has a long list of plot bunnies attached to it and the quick link that is quicker than the person it's attache to expecting has a few possibilities that might be fun to explore.

"Fun to explore" is mental gymnastics you can do and never get out of your chair.

 

[unregistered]

 

[elfin_odalisque]

IB, I would guess that less that less than 1% of stories here are 'true' in that they are not autobiographical.

My take is you use all your experiences, mold characters you have invented and let the juices flow.

As they say here, if you've got a plot bunny you can develop a story.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Bramblethorn]

Has anyone else debated a similar question?

To some degree. I haven't posted anything autobiographical as such, but some of my stories (esp the first one here) have strong real-life influences. I sounded out my partners before posting those ones publicly.

I do sometimes worry that a particular ex will come across my stories and mistakenly assume that they're based on her...

 

[legerdemer]

I've written and posted a couple of stories using past partners as my inspiration (taken down now). The settings were recognizable enough that my current partner, when he found and read them, assumed I was still pining for ex-BF's and got extremely perturbed. It set off a series of not very pretty events.

So... be careful with your inspirations.

 

[unregistered]

 

[sr71plt]

Most of my stories have a piece of me in them--I'm not sure I could write anything entirely unrelated to some form of my experience--and I rarely write about my wife either.

 

[unregistered]

 

[sr71plt]

I compartment my life. I don't write about my children either--not about any of them to the extent that they can be identified. It's my choice to write; not my family's choice to be written about.

My sister is a minister and I see family members in some of her sermons. I don't want to do that.

That said, I discovered I do write about discernible people and my own timeline more than I thought. There was a poster here on the forum for a while who identified me from one of my stories just by doing Internet research on who (I made the mistake of not disguising a name enough) was where when with what circumstances going on. That was a shocker.

 

[DreamCloud]

Real life can be awfully boring to read about. I write fairy tales that entertain me.

That said, I am sure you could assemble a good portion of my life by pulling out small sections of all my stories. In fact, I know you could. It is so much easier to write about what I know well.

My wife I greedily keep to myself.

 

[redzinger]

Before my health problems worsened, I was an investigator. Mostly financial stuff, not as exciting as it sounds, but I learnt a lot about people and random facts. Watching someone try not to squirm when you interview them and start throwing in sticky questions can be very entertaining. Searching other people's bedroooms (or even offices) for 'evidence' and finding porn is snigger-worthy.

Someone asked me recently why I don't do some stories based on my experiences. I had a think about it and realised I just don't want to. Same as writing about my disabilities, it's not really something I want to dwell on. It was a horrible, mentally and physically painful time, and I still get emotional when I'm reminded of the time I lost my career.

I suppose some people write about negativity as it's cathartic, and I hope that I'll some day reach that time. For now, I'll write what makes me happy, and that means staying in 'fluffy bunny' territory.

 

[PennLady]

Like so many others, I have bits and pieces of me, and people I know, and situations I've been in or witnessed in my stories. But I have no interest in writing directly about my real life experiences, not least because they're kind of limited.

I write, as others have said, stories I enjoy and would like to read. They're totally made up. Nothing says you have to write anything directly from your experiences and TBH, on any kind of fiction site, what real reason do I have to trust the author when they say it's real, or based on a true story/experience, etc.? That's another tool in the writing arsenal and it doesn't have to mean the story itself is true.

 

[TxRad]

Take a real life experience and then ask yourself, "What if...."

The answer is a fictional story.

Fiction writers are lairs with typing skills. Someone had that in their sig line and I always loved it.

 

[unregistered]

 

[TxRad]

::yoink:: Consider this stolen!

Receiving stolen property is not a crime in writing.

 

[Hypoxia]

Take a real life experience and then ask yourself, "What if...."

The answer is a fictional story.

Many of my pieces skew that way. What if I'd hooked up with X+Y+Z instead of A+B? What if someone close hadn't died or disappeared? What if I'd taken that other fork in the road?

I keep a file of what I call CUSPS & DETERMINANTS. The latter are event beyond my control that shaped me: early injuries, dead relatives, parents' divorce. Cusps are choices (some thoughtless) that brought me here: rides taken, words spoken, chance encounters followed-up, whatever. All of those are fodder for the what-if machine.

A parallel font of source material is... other people's work. Read or see or hear some narrative and think, "I could have written that better," or, "I could plug my own plot-gerbils into that." Then, instead of plagiarizing, use your own life as the clay to be shaped. Yes, my life *IS* a chapter from some cheesy potboiler. I'll make the most of it.

Fiction writers are lairs with typing skills. Someone had that in their sig line and I always loved it.

Yup, that's a good one.

 

[unregistered]