How much of my stories are autobiographical?

Write what you know. I’m sure you’ve heard that before, I know I sure have. But how do you go about that when you’re writing a fantasy story with gods, monsters, and magic? To be honest, I’ve never experienced any of that. But I think what they mean is that as a writer, you should reach into your own experiences to form a foundation for your story and leverage your past to help color your tale. Sure, I’ve never been chased by a nine-foot-tall grotesque teddy bear with razor sharp claws, but I have crashed my bike into a chain-link fence before.

I was asked recently by a new reader, just how much of the events Evan experiences in the story are autobiographical? In truth, a great deal of it. I’ve kissed my girlfriend in a changing booth, one of my most memorable dates was at a mini-golf place, and I’ve had a lot of weird dreams.

It has been fun to dip into my past and dredge up memorable events with which to retell in my books. They are all quite different from what happened in real life, but I unquestionably used my own experiences to guide my characters. Clearly, not everything is based on some version of my past. Case in point, I’ve never launched myself out of a classroom while nearly tackling someone in the process.

When someone tells you to ‘Write what you know’. I generally agree. As I have progressed through my story, I’ve begun to take little trips to experience things I want to portray in my books. I’ve paid more attention to people, speech patterns, and my general environment. Every bit of it helps to improve my scenes and ground them in some semblance of reality. Such efforts have improved my writing, and draw my readers in.

If you’re writing a story, I highly encourage you to go out and experience as much as you can. Take that trip, watch that show, or just go to a park and watch people (but don’t be creepy about it).