Current mood:

creative

A question on writing about personal things
There are really strong, really deep personal events in my history that I want to turn into drama, poetry, or fiction. But I find I try to write them out, and they seem too real. Too much like a diary entry, too raw and important.

So instead I write political satirical allegory. To avoid the personal stuff.

Anyone else have this trouble? Is it a good idea to give it time?



The big thing is my parent's divorce. A common event, yes, but an event that makes for good drama since it's, you know, dramatic. I could milk it, I think, and it might be entertaining to readers. It happened so long ago, I was 4. But it is still around me now- not like they ever STOPPED being divorced and pulling me into their horrible fights with eachother. So it's not like someone who died yesterday, that kind of raw. But the energy of it is too pervasive, too huge, to really put down on paper without feeling...weird...

But I feel like it's the main 'dramatic' thing in my life whose energy I could use for fiction. And marketable fiction at that- divorce is so fucking common, an audience who can relate to this is huge. But for some reason I can't...squeeze it out...

so I just end up writing about Christians sacrificing goats, car dealers terrified of sunburn and spaceships disappearing when a girl's puberty hits. All things not that close to my heart. But I know from experience that things close to a writer's heart are often entertaining and helpful to read for other people. So...

yeah, I'm stuck with this.