Daddy's Christmas Angel

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Meeting at the Corner Cafe and Creating Plots

Today Bodie Parkhurst, the cover designer, artist, and author for The Corner Cafe, is interviewing me at Magic Dog Press. My contribution to this book is a short story titled "A Face in the Window," a what-if tale based on a traumatic experience I had years ago.

Writing this story started me thinking and wondering how many authors base their stories on "what-if" plots that actually began as personal experiences. I remember listening to author Nora Roberts speak a few years ago. She talked about creating her stories by asking that question many times. Surely some of those "what-ifs" came from her own experiences. I heard this morning that plots for the Ray Bradbury stories developed from nightmares he had as a child.

Certainly, we can ask "what if" when we have a particularly vivid dream. Dreams become important in my stories, such as the dreams in my book, Hearts Across Forever.

As an author, do you often ask that question? Do you base much of your writing on personal experience?

Please continue to follow The Corner Cafe tomorrow, June 8 visiting Heidi Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com.

2 comments:

Chuck said...

I am thinking I may try writing something based on personal experience as my first attempt at writing. Seems like a easier way to go since your really know how the story ends.

Notes Along the Way with Mary Montague Sikes said...

Or you can change to ending, especially if you didn't like it! That's the beauty of fiction writing.