Pat Esden’s got a good blog up about using our childhood memories in writing. It’s a long-ish post, so my sum-up won’t do it justice, but the point I walked away with is that we can mine our memories for their emotional strength, rather than their details. Of course, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard OSC make some point to this effect, but for some reason this blog brought it home.
You see, she’s suggesting that it’s this emotional strength which will catapault our stories out of the merely passable state and into the truly memorable realm. I think that’s true. When I think of my stories that have garnered more attention than I expected, or have done well in spite of flaws, I can generally pinpoint some strong emotion that I utilized while writing the tale.
So I guess you could say that one way to save a paltry story might be to dig deep to the sorest points in your childhood, then take that experience and extract the emotion from the factual events, and weave it into your character. At the very least, it will add a genuine element, and it may create a character with real reader empathy.
