Elliot Kessler

Writing fiction is a phenomenal and unique experience. Making up worlds, impossible technology, and magic systems is always a great time and can, for the most part, only be found in writing. It’s fun to invent things impossible, fantastical things.

But as lies always stem from a seed of truth, so it is with writing. Fiction with no foundation crumbles in the mind of the reader.

But what can be used for the foundation?

There are plenty of answers people have to this question: characters, themes, and emotions. But the true answer is more straightforward. The foundation of all fiction should be experience. No imagination, not making anything up, and not creating characters. All an author needs to do is to remember to establish the foundation for their story.

What does it mean to “write from experience?”

If you’re an author or have read some of my earlier posts, I’m sure you have heard the phrase, “Write what you know.” That’s what it means to write from experience.

Don’t know what that phrase means, either?

That’s ok. I will explain.

Pete Doctor pitched his idea for a movie to the studio he worked at, Pixar Studios. The idea was that there was a world parallel to our own filled with monsters who visit our world through magic doors to scare kids and get screams to power their cities.

It was a fun idea but wasn’t viable as a movie. It could make for an exciting setting, but where was the story? Who would be the main character? What would their motivation be? What was the movie about?

Around the same time, Doctor became a father. He was still figuring out what he was supposed to do as a father and finding the balance between keeping his child safe and letting them make mistakes and hurt themselves so they could learn. That was the experience he was going through, and that experience became gold.

Doctor took his idea to the studio again, but the pitch was different. The setting was the same, but there was finally a story. There would be a monster who scares kids for a living and accidentally becomes responsible for a human child that wanders into the monster world. While protecting the child, he would grow attached to her, making it even harder when he inevitably had to let her go.

Now, there is a story. Now, there are characters. Now, Doctor has a movie.

He took his formless, abstract concept and turned it into a viable story by applying his own experiences to the story.

For another example, look at my work, “Liar’s Legacy.”

A boy with no confidence, a revered liar, and an angry bounty hunter is tasked with saving the galaxy. That is a comprehensive idea, and it doesn’t have a lot of weight behind it. Anyone can write a space opera. What makes this one special?

At the time, I felt I was living a lie. I would talk one way and put on a mask wherever I went, but then I would get home and live another life. I won’t go into detail, but I knew what I did was bad. Yet, I did it anyways. I told people to live one way while I lived another way. I was a hypocrite, and I was ashamed of myself.

Gold.

What if the revered liar told everyone he was a war hero? What if the boy and the bounty hunter were embodiments of the people he hurt by living his other, hypocritical life? What if he was ashamed, and the only way to atone for what he had done was to become what he told everyone he was?

Now, there is a story. Now, the characters are real. Now, I have a book.

This doesn’t only make your story better, but it makes it stand out. It’s your story. Only you can truly write from your own experiences. If only you are brave enough to share your deepest, darkest secrets, you can write stories no one else can.

What experiences do I write from?

The biggest experiences you’ve ever been through. Loss of a loved one, addiction, overcoming, or anything else that has changed the course of your life. Readers want to see characters struggle with something that threatens them fundamentally. They want to go through the experiences of others.

You don’t have to think hard to pick an experience. You only have to remember. Maybe not even that. You might write something that you’re struggling with right now. It could be anything fundamental to your identity. If you’re struggling with your beliefs, write about that. If you’re figuring out who you are, write about that.

There is an infinite amount of material within yourself to mine for stories. You’ve been through a lot. You’re going through a lot. There’s a lot you still haven’t been through yet, but you will. There are a ton of stories in those experiences. Use your experiences, whether they are things you learned from, things that caused you pain, things that you struggled with, or something that you overcame. Your experiences are your greatest weapon when it comes to fiction.

So, with that being said, pick any experience that changed you. Pick experiences that changed the course of your life. Use your perspective and beliefs about the world and reality and embroider them into your narratives.

Conclusion

Creative writing is about you. As selfish as that might sound or feel, my stories are mine. I won’t change the foundations of my novel because someone didn’t like it. It’s my story whether you like it or not. The same goes for any story you write. That story is yours forever; you should never change it because someone didn’t like it. If you try to please everyone, you please no one.

Write your experiences. Give your perspective. If someone hates it, that’s their problem. Write things that changed you, improving your story and making it unique to you.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.