(I’ve gone ahead and made this post public — so if you prefer to email me your fiction-turned-realistic story, feel free to do so at janni@simner.com. Or if you prefer to post it in your own journal and leave me a link in comments, that’d be cool, too.)
So, in a couple of weeks I’m speaking at the UA College of Education’s lit conference on fantasy as realistic literature–on how life influences fiction, and how fiction reflects life, even when we don’t plan it–and even when (especially when?) one is writing fantasy.
I talked about some of my own experiences along these lines when I spoke on a panel at the Arizona Library Association conference about a year ago, and much of what I’ll be doing is expanding on that talk.
But an hour is much longer than ten minutes, and speaking just about myself the whole time would be boring, so …
If any of the writers reading this are willing to share, I’m looking for experiences any other writers reading this have had in which either a real-life event sparked a story especially a fantasy story–but other kinds, too); or, more, when you thought you weren’t writing about real life, but you discovered you were after the fact, after all. (This continues to startle me, every time–how we can start off thinking we’re not writing about someone else’s experiences, or our own; and can turn out to be wrong on both counts.)
And if any of the readers reading this are willing to share, I’d love to hear about any times when a story (especially a fantasy story–but other kinds, too) has connected particularly strongly with something in your own life, especially (but not only) if you knew it was something the writer couldn’t possibly have known about, when they wrote the story.
I don’t know what the structure of the talk will be yet, but also let me know whether or not it’s okay to use what you post should it prove appropriate, either with credit to you, or anonymously.
And thanks! I’m actually curious about others’ experiences along these lines even outside of the context of the discussion. 🙂