There have been eleven fascinating and enlightening posts so far in the series That’s Not Me! What can they teach us?
That’s Not Me! examines how much of our fiction is autobiographical and why some authors try to insist there’s no link between their fictional characters and themselves. If you want to take part, have a look here and get in touch. You don’t have to be a writer. Readers also have views!
Joan Livingston says, “My motto in writing fiction is that I take what I know and have my way with it.” Nowhere is that more apparent than in her Isabel Long Mystery Series, which I know well through having edited it – so much so that I sometimes have a hard time remembering that Joan doesn’t actually investigate long-unsolved crimes!
Vanessa Couchman doesn’t deliberately put herself into her characters, but says, “it’s inevitable that I share certain traits with some of my protagonists.”
Jennifer C. Wilson says, “It would be pointless to pretend for even a second that there’s no hint of me in Kate, the leading character in The Last Plantagenet?”
Val Penny hasn’t based a character on herself, but she did unconsciously create a main character who turned out to have a lot in common with one of her uncles.
Mary Grand often uses characteristics of herself as a starting point, but then develops the character so that she becomes her own person.
Angela Wren’s characters are completely made up. She uses her experience as an actor to create them. But she does occasionally use overheard or experienced parts of conversations in her fiction.
Nancy Jardine doesn’t use personal experiences for her historical fiction, but did embellish some remembered events for a contemporary novel.
Tim Taylor discusses the use of real life in poetry, including his own.
Sue Barnard has used her own experiences in her more contemporary novels, as well as letting a character express some of her own views.
Jennifer C. Wilson (yes, she and her delightful humour returned for another guest post) describes how another character unintentionally ended up being very similar to herself.
Miriam Drori (yes, that’s me) used several of her traits for a character, and admits that she not only used a story remembered from childhood, but even kept the real name of a teacher who behaved badly.
What can we learn from these posts?
Overwhelmingly, they say that authors use parts of themselves and their experiences when writing fiction, although they generally embellish or tweak the real stories to fit their fictional novels (or poems).
What do you think? You’re welcome to comment or, better still, to join in the discussion with a guest post, starting off here.
I had to make sure that the events of the two books coincided. The action of Nice Girls Don’t takes place over just a few months (from April to July 1982), but Finding Nina covers a much longer timespan – from 1943 to 2004. I had to write out a timeline of events covering the entire period, and work from that.
Sue Barnard is a British novelist, editor and award-winning poet who was born in North Wales some time during the last millennium. She speaks French like a Belgian, German like a schoolgirl, and Italian and Portuguese like an Englishwoman abroad. She now lives in Cheshire, UK, with her extremely patient husband and a large collection of unfinished scribblings.
Miriam Drori, Author 