Ever avoid writing a story?

[JuanaSalsa]

Response to the original post, although it's rather old...

I often write to purge an idea. If I don't write it, the thoughts keep tumbling around this *thing* ad nauseum. If I write, I can organize my feelings and emotions, compartmentalize them neatly, and have a narrative to tell myself that makes sense and contributes to my personal growth.

However, I don't look back to old personal stuff very much. I have written one story that looked back, but not as far back as childhood, I am very pleased I wrote it. Yes, it made me sad in the process. I cried and was glum for a bit, but the story I made of it I love, and it really helped me reframe my attitude to something more positive.

I've written a lot of *contemporary* things that are too private to be published here (and have only been shared with one person), and other *contemporary* things that I wrote with the intention of sharing it, all of the reality of it buried in disguise.

The only time I've avoided writing a story was when I wasn't sure what my feelings were. I could not figure out how I wanted the story to end, because the story mirrored real life, and I had to wait for real life to catch up to the story, months later, to be able to finally finish it and achieve the needed catharsis. Sometimes, part of the catharsis is sharing the story and seeing how other people react. Kindly or cruelly, those unbiased comments help me see events in a new light. Sometimes I read a mean comment that mirrors some negative self-talk and I realize how dumb it is to think that way and it's easier to let go of it. Sometimes I read a nice comment and I'm heartened by it.

I guess a lot depends on how fast you can write it, and how emotional it gets. Might need to rent a place a la The Shining and pound a keyboard for a couple weeks. Just hope it turns out better for you than that guy =]

 

[Duleigh]

I mostly don't write about the more painful aspects of my past, even in fiction, although I have used many real-life settings.

I don't have a limit on what I write, but sharing stories is a different ball game

 

[gunhilltrain]

Response to the original post, although it's rather old...

I often write to purge an idea. If I don't write it, the thoughts keep tumbling around this *thing* ad nauseum. If I write, I can organize my feelings and emotions, compartmentalize them neatly, and have a narrative to tell myself that makes sense and contributes to my personal growth.

However, I don't look back to old personal stuff very much. I have written one story that looked back, but not as far back as childhood, I am very pleased I wrote it. Yes, it made me sad in the process. I cried and was glum for a bit, but the story I made of it I love, and it really helped me reframe my attitude to something more positive.

I've written a lot of *contemporary* things that are too private to be published here (and have only been shared with one person), and other *contemporary* things that I wrote with the intention of sharing it, all of the reality of it buried in disguise.

The only time I've avoided writing a story was when I wasn't sure what my feelings were. I could not figure out how I wanted the story to end, because the story mirrored real life, and I had to wait for real life to catch up to the story, months later, to be able to finally finish it and achieve the needed catharsis. Sometimes, part of the catharsis is sharing the story and seeing how other people react. Kindly or cruelly, those unbiased comments help me see events in a new light. Sometimes I read a mean comment that mirrors some negative self-talk and I realize how dumb it is to think that way and it's easier to let go of it. Sometimes I read a nice comment and I'm heartened by it.

I guess a lot depends on how fast you can write it, and how emotional it gets. Might need to rent a place a la The Shining and pound a keyboard for a couple weeks. Just hope it turns out better for you than that guy =]

"All work and no play make Jack a dull boy."

Now repeat endlessly.

I don't deliberately avoid my own past, but there are some things that I don't think I want to get into. I have alluded to some family stories, like how my paternal grandfather had a wholesaling business in the Bronx Terminal Market. Another one I've used is my maternal grandfather's earliest (probably) memory on a day in June, 1904 when the General Slocum steamboat burned in the East River. His uncle (his mother's brother, I think) was a firefighter in a station just down the street from where he lived in Mott Haven, which was about a mile or so from where the boat finally ran aground.

Uncle Hank's drive-in adventure

In this case, I changed my grandfather's first name to Carmine, but the main character is an additional (second) uncle who is fictional. All of the other details are accurate. Of course, the last name was changed too.