In a post on Writers Helping Writers, Lucy Hay shares tips for using real life to inspire your fiction. While your life might not be as exciting or awful as what you read in most memoirs, you still have plenty of material at hand, she says.
- Locations. “All of us have lived somewhere in our lives (perhaps many places!),” Hay says. This means we can utilize these locations to their best advantage in our fiction.”
- Jobs. Most of us have had a variety of work experiences, from fast food joints to physical labor to office work. You might have volunteered somewhere, taken an unpaid internship, or provide unpaid care for a loved one. “Having real life experience of a particular job can be a great way of adding authenticity to our fiction,” Hay notes.
- Favorites. The kinds of books and movies you like might tell you what you’d like to write.
- Personal. “As writers, we all have personal experiences and opinions,” Hay says. “We may even have started writing BECAUSE we feel the need to talk about such things.” You might write about your fears, secrets, moments you regret, or favorite memories.
