Autobiography

I have a habit of including some semi-autobiographical information or details into my writing. I read or heard somewhere to "Write what you know". Well, I think I know my self pretty well, so I include a bit of myself or people I know in my characters. Some of them know I do this, and some don't, but I think the tell of a good writer would be if they could recognise themselves or not when reading it. In some cases, I wouldn't want this to happen, lol, so I have to be an even better writer and disguise the people. In others, it is because I respect or esteem a person and want to give them a place in my story, like they have a place in my life. But, all names have been changed to protect the innocent... or not so innocent in some cases too. :)

Even my oldest son J. has a place in my most involved story to date, listed as 1. on the summary on Publish Kestrel. He is a key element to the story, and he's one of the most important people in my life, so I wanted to give him a place.

I think most writers do this to some extent, pulling from experience to add to what their imagination gives them. Even little old Emily Dickinson, recluse that she was, probably had something of personal note in her work. It makes historians and literary people crazy trying to figure out what writers of old meant when they wrote stuff. Maybe they didn't mean anything, and were just trying to fuel those fires and make high school students mad with frustration while writing term papers.

Not that I would ever presume to think that anything I write might end up in a textbook someday, but just the very act of ending up in print will immortalize something, and I feel like I have to make a mark somehow!