You ever hear those stories about writers accidentally putting a lot of their personal lives or personal histories into their works? Or that adage about writing what you know?
Well, from time to time, I think about my work and realize I pretty well tossed those things out the window. A lot of what I write doesn't bear a strong resemblance to my own life. More often than not, I'd say any resemblance is pretty weak. Sometimes, I look back on something I wrote and think, "Where in the center of the world did that come from?"
Charlotte, my MC from The Thief Book, is a staunch Catholic. So is Leo, her love interest, and Alessia, her mentor. I've known a lot of Catholics in my life, but I am not one. That's why, now that I think about it, I'm a little surprised about how much Catholicism there is in the text. I'm really not the most religious of people, and most people I know aren't overly observant, yet I somehow wrote a character who considers her faith one of the central and unshakable aspects of her life. That, in hindsight, does surprise me. I'm almost wondering where this girl came from in my mind.
Do you ever have such realizations about your work? Do you ever write something into your story and not feel wholly sure how that idea became part of your subconscious?
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I find that my characters tend to have the same or similar hangups and/or psychological issues I have... it sort of sneaks in and then I wonder what happened...
ReplyDeleteI guess writing is therapy, in a way ; )
there's an award for you on my blog!
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm...I wonder what some in-depth psychoanalysis would uncover here? :)
ReplyDeleteWoah, that's awesome. I'm still dealing with my main characters turning out exactly like me >_<
ReplyDeleteTessa -- Thank you, that's very kind of you to think of me. :)
ReplyDeleteDL -- I'm sure a shrink reading my material would have some interesting things to say. I'm somewhat curious about what those things would be.
Vader -- I think to a certain extent we all write what we know. I guess this would be weirder if I didn't know a ton of Catholics. You're probably using your life as a basis because that's something you know a lot about.