I like reading my books. Yup. For several reasons. The published not so much, but the unpublished can take up hours and days and weeks of my time if I’m not careful.
What is there to learn from old MSS? Well, how far I’ve come is a good one. Also, I take the chance to pat myself on the back for being a good storyteller, from the get go…but my actual writing skill has certainly improved.
I also see how much therapy my writing has proven the last ten years. Wow, I saw all sorts of family, friends, etc. and read a great deal of how I felt about so many situations as I read these old MSS. Found a lot of gold in them there hills, and a lot of personal growth/sadness/revelation about myself and relationships in general.
I wonder am I the only one who sees so directly my personal demons popping into my stories?
I’m also a reader who likes to read about woman in their 30s-40s-50s and follow their adventures. I like it if they are brunettes, short, roundish… You know, like me!
Now, I do like to read about hobbies and interests I don’t necessarily take part in…mainly because I don’t have time. But generally they are hobbies I’d like to think I’d enjoy pursuing. Or learning about. Same thing with locations and vacations, etc. Places I’d like to visit if I had the time. And the cash.
It is part of the adventure, I like to think. I write about the many aspects of me. The what-if me. The alternate world me. And I like to read about that woman, too.
Am I an egocentric? Or are we all this way?
Today I was supposed to give blood and I was looking forward to the quiet time to read one of my own stories that needs editing *after* I’ve read it right the way through. Turns out my iron levels were too low, so no reading of my own work for me this afternoon. 🙁
I don’t think I set out to write about things that appeal to me or as a means of slaying demons, but looking at my work, I know that sometimes happens. Early drafts of The Music of Chaos were rife with my loathing for my job at the county. Later, on revision, I realized that my protagonist “supposedly” liked her day job, so I softened the tone on workplace scenes.
I usually set my urban fantasy stuff in places I’ve lived because “write what you know.” My voice is much stronger when I’m describing settings through the filter of experience.
I’d like to think that I immerse myself in my characters, giving each traits that are different from me, but ultimately, I know it’s impossible to totally exorcise the “me” from my writing. 🙂
I do tend to write what I know…which is why a lot of my experiences with friends, family, health issues, etc, creep into my writing. But I tend to read a lot of outside my personal experience…like with traveling, hobbies etc.
So, Pat…with NM on fire, you gonna write about dealing with wildfire in a dry state one of these days? Or the wonderhorse?
I may mine your experience with greyhounds one of these days… 😉