Since I write historical fiction and about women from all walks of life, my instinct is to say that there is not too much of me in my writing, but I know that isn’t true.
A lot of my writing is influenced by my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs even if I am writing about vampire pirates in a post-apocalyptic dystopian.
Many authors claim that they keep “politics” out of their writing, but that simply isn’t possible. If you personally don’t respect women, that is going to show through in your writing. If you think that people of other races and social classes matter, that is going to show through in your writing.
We are also informed by the things we read and the experiences we have had. I studied Gothic literature in university, so those Gothic themes often shine through.
But I wouldn’t be much of a fiction writer if I wasn’t also able to write about people and situations that I have no knolwedge or experience with. But that is where research comes in handy. I was talking to my daughter recently about a book we want to write together. I said, “We should set it in xxxx town because it is a really romantic setting.” And she said, “Well we better go there so we can write about it.” Long story short, we aren’t going there. Thanks to the power of the Internet, I don’t need to go every place on earth, be every person, or live every life to write about them.
What do you think? Are you in your writing? Let me know in the comments.
This post is part of the 2018 MFRW Weekly Blog Post Challenge. You can read all my posts in the challenge for 2018 here.