Posts Tagged ‘two minute penalties’

Writing real life

Posted in General Musings on September 2nd, 2009 by Big Ed – Be the first to comment

Write what you know, right?

Ah, if only it was so easy. On the one hand, there are things that many authors want to write about, that they just don’t know. Research helps, but only goes so far. My personal example is from Two Minute Penalties. I had to write a blowjob scene from the POV of the person giving the blowjob, when I’ve never given one myself. Fortunately, I was able to get some advice from women who had, and get a scene that I think worked out okay.

On the other hand, I can’t write memoir style stories either. For starters, there’s the risk of libel if someone doesn’t particularly like how I depicted them. For second, do I really want to tell some of these stories to people who know me?

For, while Big Ed Magusson is a pseudonym, there are a number of people who know I write and know both names. My wife. A few friends. A couple of past lovers. Not many but enough to make me think: do I really want them reading a true story about my past?

Because that’s one of the advantages of fiction. No one’s going to say: “You actually did that? What a pervert!” After all, it’s just fiction, right?

Which means that I’m left stealing from my real life, dressing it up and changing it around. That tends to work, but it’s amusing to see the results. In general, I try to keep the emotional tenor true to real life, while letting the characters take on a life of their own. For example, “Dave” from the Holiday Series is based on a real life friend whose wife asked him for a divorce right before Thanksgiving. His next girlfriend was a vivacious redhead, and that formed the beginning of the story. Of course, by now, the characters look and act nothing like their inspirations, having evolved and moved in their own directions.

Overall, I think it’s working. But it does make these musings tougher to write. Part of me wants to say, “yeah, here’s the full story behind the story,” but that would just defeat the point of writing fiction in the first place.

I wonder how many other authors struggle with the same balance?