Is fiction really fiction or is every fiction story based on an experience the author has had? I guess it’s different for every author, but for me, my really great fiction comes from “that space beyond the mind” where the story takes shape and the characters take over. My novel, Family Inheritance, that will be released in October of 2014 is about three women who endure a tough childhood, think they’ve escaped from it, only to find that their childhood experiences are tainting their present lives. The characters grew inside of my imagination yet they grew up in Minnesota on a farm, and so did I. One character now lives in Georgia and one in Texas, and I’ve lived in both places. One character has an obsession with chocolate, and I must admit that I love my chocolate. Yet each character that develops within my stories is unique, flawed, and taking their own journey through their fictional life.
As a writer, I watch people, observe situations, think about things (probably way too much), and then put all of that information into my imagination and let it take me where it will. Not all stories that come from my imagination are worth publishing, or even sharing with others, but the experience for me is always enjoyable.
I’m sure you’ve heard fiction authors say that sometimes the characters will take off and go in their own direction, surprising the writer, and that is often my experience, and one I absolutely love. When I’m in my creative space, the stories flow from my imagination onto the paper, not necessarily stopping in my mind to be analyzed. It is later, after what I call a “creative dump” that the analyzing, editing, and rewriting takes place to help shape the story into one that is worth sending in to a publisher for their consideration.
For me, writing fiction is much like being a potter. Potters start with clay, and each potter forms something different by using their imagination and their experiences to influence the end result. As fiction writers, we begin with words and each piece of fiction is crafted and influenced by our own imagination and our experiences.
Terri Ann Leidich 