Writing from Experience

Naturally, all writers draw on their experiences in order to tell stories, for there is no such thing as total invention. But, that being said, some writing has a more direct relationship to past experiences than others, perhaps most notably in memoir and other forms of autobiographical nonfiction and fiction.

Unlike some other forms of creative work, autobiographical writing does not disguise its debt to past experience. But even forms in which the author is less "present" in the text, seeming to be no more than a function of the content, the credibility and specificity of the writing is often enhanced by the author's personal connection to a key aspect of the story. 

For example, setting and character are, I think, difficult to write well without a link to one's own impressions of place and people. There must be exceptions, I know; after all, I don't think anyone has actually met an alien in a distant galaxy, but lots of people have written about doing so. But maybe even these writers had someone in mind as they wrote. An unpleasant distant cousin, say.

I have written a short piece on the idea of experience as a method of writing for the recently published A to Z of Creative Writing Methods. And, later this year, I will be offering a five-part course on the subject for the Queensland Writers Centre (details here).