Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Personal Stories

     Personal stories are easy to write because it's something that you've experienced first hand.  You either lived it or someone told you about it.  When writing personal stories you want to be careful so you don't hurt relationships with family or friends.  The first thing is to NOT write out of vengeance.  Try to see the story from the other persons point of view.  Don't write with an axe to grind but write from love.
     One thing you can do when writing a story of this kind is to blur the details.  For instance, if you're telling a story about a friend of yours with short, curly blond hair change her hair to long and straight.  Make her a dental assistant instead of a nurse.  Readers don't need to know someone's real name to get the message.
     As you write your first draft, you will use people's real names, real dates, real hair color, etc.  Doing this will keep you from getting confused.  Use every gory detail, then after you get your story the way you want you can go back and change the details.
     If you happen to write something that you can't disguise without ruining the story, show it to the person you are writing about.  Discuss it with them and if they're okay with what you've written, continue on.
     Write about yourself.  Self-deprecating humor works every time.  People can identify with that type of writing.
     One thing to remember is that personal relationships are more important than writing a story so be careful.  Happy writing!

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