[stylist] More things to ponder- tapping into the human experience

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Amber,

We enjoy deep discussions here, grin. Never apologize for your thoughts
and opinions.

I use to be a performer- I say use to because it's been years since I've
performed- long story. Anyway, I bring a lot of my performing arts
background into my writing. I use a lot of exercises I learned when
dancing, singing and acting to draw emotions out. In order to discover
emotions and thoughts I've not personally experienced, I speak with
people; I read a lot and I observe human nature in general.

We all will have a feeling, an opinion, when we hear about something-
whether it be good or bad. We react to information even if we don't
share a close relationship with a given circumstance. You use the
example of abuse and how to accurately portray this when writing. When
you hear a story about abuse, if you take the information in and ponder
it, you will have a reaction, an emotion. I believe this is what allows
any artist to portray a situation that comes from a second-hand
experience.

And when writing, the most important aspect of a story is great
characters. It's our job to bring characters to life, to make them
three-dimensional. We put elements of ourselves into characters, or use
people close to us as a prototype for characters. We also try to live in
their circumstances in order to evoke readers.

Consider this too: Sometimes a personal experience is difficult to write
about. Often we require distance from a situation in order to portray it
with accuracy, depth and a balanced view. For example, before I came to
terms with some events in my childhood, I found it difficult to write
about them. The emotions and feelings were too raw for me to put on
page. Likewise, when I try to write about my husband, it's just too
disgustingly sappy, grin. It's all puppies and rainbows and clichés no
one wants to read about. With both examples, I don't always have the
distance to create a balanced view on the subjects. Should someone like
yourself, Amber, write about my experiences though, you have that
distance from the situation. You can sift the information and really
flesh out a story, looking at it from all angles.

This isn't to say we can't write about our own life. I just believe we
need a little distance from our life in order to accurately depict it on
paper.

Tapping into our emotions is vital when writing. Personally experiencing
something certainly assists in portraying it, but I don't believe we
have to  have directly lived through something just to create a
character and story. Breathing life into characters requires a writer to
be a student of human nature, to think beyond the scope of our own mind.
We need to be tuned into our emotions, thoughts and physical being. I
believe this is how we can take research and breathe life into writing,
creating compelling characters and allowing readers to want to take a
journey with those characters.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter, editor, Slate & Style
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"If we discover a desire within us that nothing in this world can
satisfy, we should begin to wonder if perhaps we were created for
another world."
C. S. Lewis


Message: 5
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:15:29 -0500
From: "Herrin, Amber" <herrinar at muohio.edu>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] More things to ponder
Message-ID:
	
<CALCfpxJ0qB6=8tDUKKPAWTSM7ZjjAjh8XiiqfY7-C5PtuWh38g at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Bridgit,

Wow! Yes.  All very good points.  I hadn't thought about it that way,
but certainly there are those who write about war effectively without
actually experiencing it.  I think, though, that to a certain extent,
unless someone has experienced something, they can't really call a
writer out on something and say, 'hey, that's not really real.  That was
written by a writer who has no clue!'

What I mean is, yes, it is definitely important to gather research and
yes, it is certainly important to find a way to recreate what you are
talking about as accurately as possible, but my question, I guess, to
add to the discussion-and something I'm personally curious about-is, can
you really know whether or not something is portrayed accurately if you
yourself have never experienced it?  Can you really recreate it in a way
that portrays real feelings or, are you just 'guessing' as it were?

Does that affect the quality of your writing?  Who knows, though, unless
they have experienced it?

Maybe I'm not asking clearly so I'll try with an example.  Because I've
looked back over what's above this and though I'll send it anyway, it
just seems repetitive or unclear to me.

If, let's say, a writer wants to write about the feelings of finding out
that a person's child was sexually abused, beyond all the research,
beyond all the deep self-reflection and intraspection and imagination,
once all these things are done, once the writer has all the research he
or she can possibly have, when he or she writes about these feelings,
can someone who has never had their child sexually abused really know
whether or not these things are accurately portrayed?  The feelings, the
actions, the best ways to cope etc?

Maybe in a situation where you're reading a fantasy book this kind of
thing doesn't matter, but let's talk about in the context of self-help
books where you're reading not for yourself but to help your child, your
sister, your mother, your brother, cope with something horrific in his
or her life.

Sure, you can say these things are usually written by doctors or
psychologists who know the signs, know the issues, know the feelings
well, know the behaviors well, because they deal with them on a regular
basis and it's what they want to help stop or at least deal with when
it's over.

But can they really convey that information to you in a way that helps
you feel or know or search for the right signs when that's what you're
trying to do?

Deep stuff for quarter past nine...sorry.

Best,

Amber