Many writers create by mining their experiences and those of others for the base material of their craft. In this way, we make new from old. It’s a creative way of recycling your dust bin of thought and experience.
In the meantime, we research data for our goodies because writing is synthesis. Even if we are digging through our own experiences for themes and plots, we still need information we don’t have direct access to. Want to write a novel set on a naval base? OK, you lived on one, but you know squat about how one is run. In your murder-who-done-it, details like that help you create a believable background. Writing is a great way to stay informed and a good method for staying mentally agile.
Towards the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge states, “I will live in the past, the Present, and the Future!” This is not bad advice for people seeking to stay mentally sharp, socially engaged, and healthy. The idea is to avoid the stamp of being mired in your accumulated thought patterns.
I often use my past as a folksinger and Pious Itinerant in my stories and blog posts. I know my younger self was not as knowledgeable or experienced as I am now. But his life, thoughts, and circumstances provide many jumping-off points for creative explorations. To do this, I often find that I must become informed of things I was blissfully unaware of at twenty—poor guy. I mercilessly mine his actions and innermost thoughts for embarrassing escapades. Then, to top it off, I keep him in the dark about things he should know.
If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?
Discover more from Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver
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One thing I learned writing fiction is that I don’t know much! One of the most fun things was research and also seeing how my own life experience might show up in the actions, mentality and beliefs of my characters. “I” am in all of my novels though not obviously.
Mining and research. Can’t be an author without them!