Ideas from Real-Life
Writers need to be creative when coming up with fictional stories, and many of those stories or aspects often come from real-life instances.
I can’t speak for everyone, but there is a little bit of me or my personal experiences in all of my books. I might hear a phrase that rings true for one of my characters, or I feel a specific emotion that I can describe in a way that connects with a reader.
I added many real-life tidbits in my current work, Menagerie Mind. I never had a stroke or have Broca’s aphasia, but I was a teen that had to deal with fitting in and getting by in high school. I still have experiences that would make anyone, no matter how old, feel happy, sad, or angry. That’s life.
I thought I would share a snippet of the book where I adapted a real-life experience to my main character, Ferne Tippit.
The high school sophomore is apprehensive about her first day of school since her stroke. Her condition makes it difficult to communicate verbally, and she doesn’t want to look like a fool. Breakfast isn’t very encouraging.
I pulled out the sleeve and squeezed it, trying to break it apart, but to no avail. Changing tactics, I laid the bag down and punched it with my fist. Tacky puffed wheat flew from the packaging and scattered all over the countertop.
I caught a glimpse of my dad’s eyebrow raise, and I sighed. So, this is how my day is going to be.
I wiped the strewn cereal bits into my bowl and poured in the milk. My face twisted as I struggled to say, “Breakfast. Of champ…champions.”
I had a similar fight with a box of cereal days before I wrote this for Ferne. My struggle to perform the simplest of tasks, such as making breakfast, wasn’t meant to be a metaphor for a teen dealing with Broca’s aphasia, but life has a way of dropping ideas into our laps if we remain open-minded.
The next time a book sucks you in, sweeps you away, or scares the pee out of you, remember that moments like those may have come from the author’s own experiences. It’s not a huge leap from dinosaurs to dragons. Stories are just moments in life from a different perspective.
