How do your family experiences translate into writing scenes? Rhobin has asked.
Good question but difficult to find an answer for as I share very little family stuff online. However, I have been pondering it and have come to a conclusion.
I think family experiences infuse my work but are not structural to it.
So, do the actions of any of my characters disappoint the protagonist? Antagonise her? Anger her? Overwhelm her with love? Leave her exasperated in either a funny or despairing way?
Yes, they do and all of that comes out of the experiences of family life.
One major family experience I have acknowledged, because all of the participants were long dead, was that of my granny. Finding herself in changed circumstances, she had to go to work in the mill. One of the overseers ran his hands through her glorious red hair. That indignity/ assault was the inspriation for Jennet in City of Discoveries, the nineteenth century story I wrote to mark the 150th anniversary of the People’s Friend magazine.
Another experience I have used often is the way in which the women of many, many families were deprived of an education in order that the males could go on. An aunt told me in some bitterness how her mother had always favoured the boys in that respect and she had always felt she would enjoy maths. It was a view I heard on visits to old people’s homes while working with Citadel Arts’ Group and I used it in my play STAIN REMOVER. It re-surfaces in MARIAH’S MARRIAGE and A MAID AND A MAN and roars through A CLASS OF THEIR OWN with storm force.
I have to say, my own parents never held me back academically. I might also say, that a bright boy in my school class was taken out of school at the earliest leaving-age moment by his blinkered father: “I went to work at fifteen, why should I keep him?”
So, yes, family experiences are in there. Have you discivered an overruling passion in your work?
My fellow robins are listed below and I’m sure there will be lots of interest to be gleaned from their posts.
After, you can scroll down to read Dear Granny Nuisance – my annual Christmas story for loyal readers and casual visitors. Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year.
Anne
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2ue
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com