DISCUSSION: Life Experience

[Flaze]

There's something that I've always wondered when it comes to writing. How exactly do life experiences influence a writer and why are they necessary?

You see, it's not as common to hear it now but a lot of great writers/film-makers always talk about how their lives shaped who they are and what they write about, this extends to their life experiences. Legendary film director Hayao Miyazaki for example has talked about how his experiences living through the second World War went on to shape him as a creator and how he feels that, in order for someone to truly become a good creator, rich life experiences are necessary.

In a sense I can understand where he's coming from. Experiencing life will allow you to properly understand and contextualize what you've experienced into your writing and will in turn make it feel more genuine to your readers. Lots of literary works have taken from the author's life and it's those aspect that allow readers to connect with them more.

It's not just happy moments either, usually when talking about life experience it involves both the good and the bad things that have happened to you. It's not even just having a lot of things to go through but being able to understand it and making use of them to channel them into what you're creating.

So that takes me to a conundrum. Just how much do your life experiences help in deciding your level as a writer? Everyone has different paths in life, some go through more hardships than others, others go through very little. So then what about those who haven't had a very varied or interesting life but whose life is just...normal, with nothing dramatic or tragic that shapes them or that they have to face. How much does the things you've gone through influence not just your style but your ability to grow as a writer.

 

[canisaries]

One constant contributing source of my self doubt and hatred is the fact that I've managed to have it good and nice all my life - no war, no abuse, no poverty, no crimes committed to or by me, not even any bones broken. I feel so extremely privileged and lucky, and I feel like an idiot for still somehow developing depression.

So, I really have no experience of anything outside of staying at home all the time and having a boring ass life, and that's why I feel pretty uncertain whenever I want to portray something more serious or even just more outgoing in general. I only really have movies and hearsay to take anything from, and neither is guaranteed to give you a realistic experience.

Now, to be fair, though, there's no doubt that the majority of authors today write about all kinds of things they haven't experienced in any form. You can't expect people to only exclusively write about what they've seen, unless it's an autobiography you want. They say write what you know, but yo I don't think Kafka ever actually turned into an insect.

To get back on track: I have still put things from my minimal life experience to my stories. Real places, real impressions, even actual events to the point where I'm not sure if it actual counts as plagiarizing real life. (A weird jingly woman did randomly come to me once asking for change. Did not have homicidal thoughts about her, though.) An element I've used most would be my experiences with mental health help, but there are more surprising and subtle things too, like religion.

In summary, life experience is definitely an enhancement to a story, but I don't think it would be fair to demand it from anyone. All you can really demand is an understanding on the author's part that what they think something is like might not be what it's really like.

anyway I'll have you all know that my gore is extremely well researched and this is the few things I pride myself on

 

[diamondpearl876]

Life experiences can help, sure, but I don't think that automatically means only people who have experienced tragic and depressing lives are more inspired or inherently better writers. The brain remembers and stores so much information - so many memories, so many sensations - that I refuse to believe that only the negative parts of life can contribute to writing. Like canisaries said, taking description and dialogue from real life definitely counts here, no matter if you're taking a simple phrase or an entire building's architecture or just a random street you strolled by the other day. How often do we point out in reviews that it's the little details that matter? And let's be real, there's enough negativity in the world to go around that writing that can show the more mundane and/or brighter sides of life are much appreciated.

On writing feeling more "genuine" with tragic or depressing experiences... The key here is empathy. Empathy helps you connect to others on a personal level, even through words as a writer. And you don't have to experience something tragic or depressing to be empathetic. In fact, some people turn to the exact opposite, feeling bitter and hateful toward everyone and everything. Glorifying these experiences and wishing to have your own just to be a better writer is a massive disservice to those who have gone through those kinds of experiences. That also insinuates that people have to use their tragic or depressing experiences as inspiration to write... which isn't true. Not every writer writes for therapeutic reasons; no writer should feel obligated to tap into their dreadful past to write something "good."

Also in terms of genuineness... I'll point out that many authors/creators/important figures of the past have found exploring and interacting with the real world nigh unbearable. Solitude was the answer for them, or more specifically, getting lost in their own mind was far more fulfilling and inspirational to them. I'd consider their writing and contributions to the world just as genuine as anyone else's.

 

[kintsugi]

Regarding writing with pain as your brush -- quote to live by from a show that I fell out of love with a long time ago, but when it was amazing, it was really quite amazing:

Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time. The most beloved, his command of colour most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.

I've often written for catharsis and I often haven't. Some of my edgiest phrasings have come from times that I've been genuinely happy with life, and some of my most cheerful/uplifting chapters have come during the objectively less-great times. I don't really know if there's a correlation. A lot of my work is inspired by conclusions or philosophies that I've taken up in real life, even if the events that lead those characters to make those conclusions in the story aren't the same as in my real life. I've never been an forcibly-assimilating alien hivemind, for example, but I have experienced the feeling of loneliness and isolation within my own thoughts.

On a brighter note, I've also tried stealth camping, staring off into the San Francisco bay, drunkenly charging at buildings, D&D, and bourbon hot chocolate, to list a few "research" projects I've done for stories that are either already up or on the radar.

 

[Beth Pavell]

There is only so much you can research. Google does not have all the answers.

When it comes to that ineffable spark of realistic writing, it's often life experience that fills in the gap. I think it's a lot easier to write convincingly about grief or being in love if you've experienced those things. But I'll absolutely agree with diamondpearl876 that empathy will get you a long way, and I've touched on this when it comes to writing about religion - a lot of people tend to blithely insist that they just don't get it, and I think that's because they're not looking at it with an empathetic eye.

In a subtler sense, I'll have to reluctantly turn to one of my own stories. It's often been remarked how English The Long Walk is, and that is because I am an (Admittedly observant) Englishman. It would be a rare American who could pick up on the cultural details I've grown up with, and dare I say it, you couldn't do it with internet research.

I don't necessarily see this as a problem for each author, so much as an opportunity.

 

[Gama]

Agree with what above posters have said about empathy here.

What I would add to that is that you can sometimes surprise yourself (or I do at least) with how you can write about events that you have no experience of well by linking the emotions behind them to something you have experienced. To pick a rather over-simplistic example, you may wish to write a character who has lost a parent when you have not. Perhaps you have lost a grandparent, and a lot of that experience could be useful in understanding what your character might feel like or how they might act. Of course, if you use that technique, it will be crucial to also keep in mind that your experiences are different and therefore are unlikely to translate perfectly, but they can be a really useful starting point.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

It is said, "write what you know." This does mean to write about things you've experienced, rather, it means you should write about the parts of the human condition that are close to you. This is most visibly done by pained and suffering authors, hence the emphasis in discussions like this on depression and trauma. But it's not only stuff like that which informs writing - so does joy, and loss, and peace, and wistfulness, and so on and on forever. All the parts of the human experience have value in fiction.

Obviously some people take the saying literally, but you really shouldn't. A writer needn't be a soldier to write about war. And certainly not an astronaut to write about spaceships and aliens. What I "know" that ends up in my writing is everything from my experience with loneliness and chronic pain, to what I find fascinating, touching, and thrilling.

I think that technical skill at writing is attainable through study and practice at a young age, but that a true literary spark, true insight into human experience, is something that develops not with age exactly, but with lived experience. I am incomparably more proficient as a writer than when I began a decade ago because I've had a decade of friendships, sorrows and achievements in that time.

@canisaries I would just like to note that I have also had depression for much of my life, and felt a similar frustration at myself for being so miserable when I have had a very privileged life. I suggest you medicalise your experience, and think of it in terms of serotonin deficiency. Your brain is an organ which can fail just the same as any other body part and you must care for yourself the same as you would if you were injured physically. I promise you that you can make extraordinary changes to your mental health with the right choices.

 

[Drakon]

In general, I'd say it helps greatly particularly with the more human side of writing like the emotions, trials, friendships, romances and stuff.

Granted, it's not as much of a problem for me because of my tendency to write technothrillers/war stories.

And those don't entirely need as much of the life experience. Witness possibly the greatest military fiction/technothriller writer to ever live: Tom Clancy. No military background or hell, any work with the US Government but his work is stunningly plausible if not out and out realistic.

 

[diamondpearl876]

I've been thinking of doing some research into the topic when I have more time, but my gut tells me that people who tap into their intense life experiences (painful or otherwise) when writing are more stimulated than if they weren't writing from such intense life experiences, and as a result, they're able to be more creative. Don't quote me on this (yet).