Sufferers make the best writers?

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by MustWrite, Sep 21, 2013.

  1. Wild Knight

    Wild Knight Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2013
    Messages:
    273
    Likes Received:
    195
    If anything, I am now just drawing up my life experiences and applying them to my writing, something that I have been doing for a good fifteen out of twenty-five years of my life. I have suffered a lot more than I'd care to remember, and I am only now deciding to consciously apply my suffering to my writing to try and move past it all.
    I dare say... even in spite of it all, I stuck with fairly happy stories. I'm still not the best writer by any stretch of the imagination, though.
     
  2. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2008
    Messages:
    7,851
    Likes Received:
    3,339
    Location:
    Boston
    I would like to add a somewhat controversial statement related to this topic. A lot of new writers tend to use traumatic experiences as their subject matter thinking that such experiences are what make a piece of writing good. So you'll see new writers write about abuse, neglect, bullying, etc. Now I'm not saying that these pieces aren't sincere, but they fail as good works of art. I'm going to be bold here and use Holocaust literature as an example. The Holocaust has produced some horrible literature because a lot of the survivors who took to writing believed that their work was good simply because they were writing about a horrific event. Again, I don't doubt the sincerity of the authors of these pieces, but if you were to compare their works to Holocaust literature like Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, they fall short. So at the end of the day, it's important to remember that writing about a tragic moment in one's life does not necessarily make for good literature.
     
  3. jazzabel

    jazzabel Agent Provocateur Contributor

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2012
    Messages:
    4,255
    Likes Received:
    1,688
    I agree @thirdwind. In fact, I'd say that directly writing about one's own traumatic experiences in an autobiographical manner, seldom produces quality. We don't have the distance, or the sense of humour or irony, or whatever makes a tragedy interesting for others to read and take something valuable from it. The best way to apply one's own pain to writing is through metaphor, and to sublimate it. For example, Anne Rice's daughter died when she was very young, I think it was from leukemia (but I might temember wrong). She wrote the child vampire character based on that, in the story 'Interview Wth a Vampire'. It was one of the most inspired pieces of writing I read, and the connection was so clear, once you knew about it.
     
  4. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2006
    Messages:
    19,150
    Likes Received:
    1,034
    Location:
    Coquille, Oregon
    sufferers do not necessarily make the best writers any more than the physically handicapped make the best athletes... in both cases, success stories can be found, but suffering is not a requisite for writing well...

    however, 'living' is... as in having gone through a variety of life experiences upon which to draw in creating characters and situations that will be believable... those experiences need to include the full range of emotions, not just suffering...
     
  5. ChaosReigns

    ChaosReigns Ov The Left Hand Path Contributor

    Joined:
    Mar 20, 2013
    Messages:
    1,155
    Likes Received:
    554
    Location:
    Medway, Kent, UK
    i wouldnt say ive suffered, but ive been through a lot of c*** mentally and thats not fun, but i use that extensively to help me write, i dont write about it, i write to escape it
     
  6. Morgan Willows

    Morgan Willows New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2013
    Messages:
    71
    Likes Received:
    21
    Location:
    Arizona
    I don't think it's a matter of suffering so much as having a wealth of experience/maturity and I think the two are often confused. As far as I can tell, the reason for this is that a lot of people with "normal" or relatively smooth and uneventful lives don't really get introspective and analytical until they start edging into their thirties. If you have an "easy" life, there's no real pressure to mature until you feel like getting around to it. However, speaking from my own experience, enduring a lot of hardship or trauma tends to force a person to mature very early and very quickly. The definition of maturity, for me, is the point at which a person stops just letting the current carry them along and starts actively swimming to spots that they want to go and taking responsibility for whatever happens when they get there. The longer you do that, the more mature you get, so someone who's had a hard time of it is effectively "older than their years" due to the simple fact that they've been maturing for longer.

    For example, I basically had to "grow up" at about age nine; that was the first time that there was a real possibility I'd be homeless. When the idea really sinks in that you may not have a home anymore, you start thinking about which things really matter to you, it makes you very introspective and it forces you to really analyze your needs vs wants and where your priorities are. I started having to think in terms of "is there enough food in the house?" and "can we afford the electricity this month?" at an age when most kids are still only concerned about behaving so Santa will bring them what they want for Christmas. For other kids, chores were a horrible torture that they bravely endured for the sake of an allowance to spend at the ice cream truck; for me, chores were just shit that needed to get done and, since mom was working all the time, I was the only one there to do it (allowance? what's that?). When other kids screwed up, they had the luxury of having the option to try to squirm out of it; If I screwed up, I had to own up to it right off because if my mom didn't know about everything that was going on/going wrong/broken then we could very well end up unable to afford to eat for the whole month.

    Essentially, I started having to think and act like an adult in third grade, so I've been thinking and acting like an adult for much longer than most people my age; I have more practice at it and that's all maturity really is. Maturity is the result of a person's collective experiences, their willingness to take responsibility for their words and actions, and their ability to know themselves. Suffering makes that happen sooner and faster but is not a requirement.
     
    jazzabel likes this.
  7. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2010
    Messages:
    13,984
    Likes Received:
    8,557
    Location:
    California, US
    Usually when you hear someone say that the characteristic X makes for the best writers (X being just about anything), you'll find the person making the statement has characteristic X themselves and is conveniently defining the category to include themselves to the exclusion of others. It's nonsense. There is no single personality characteristic or background experience that is a prerequisite to becoming a good writer, or even a great writer.
     
  8. CharlesPenn

    CharlesPenn New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2013
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    4
    Having a hard life doesn't necessarily make you a better writer, although having different experiences can help in your writing.

    I think its more to do with our empathy or how well we understand what we're writing about, that can come from experience but it doesn't have too as long as we can place ourselves in that characters shoes, understand what they must be going through or what's happening to its full extent.
     
  9. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2006
    Messages:
    19,150
    Likes Received:
    1,034
    Location:
    Coquille, Oregon
    ditto that... in spades! [whatever that means;)]
     
  10. graphospasm

    graphospasm Member

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2013
    Messages:
    114
    Likes Received:
    39
    Location:
    Texas
    I've seen many writers use their personal trauma as a springboard for personal essay or memoir. Some pieces succeed in crafting genuine and honest portrayals of the events that shaped the author as a person, revealing nuanced discoveries the author made about both themselves and the world in which they live. Others essays fall flat, relying on dramatics and bias to craft an essay that reads like a rant.

    Reading through this thread, several writers have already mentioned how personal bias and lack of distance act as deterrents to the successful conveyance of a trauma. If a writer can't look at their trauma objectively, find beauty or revelation in the experience, and see the "villains" for the just-as-important-as-you human beings they truly are, the piece is (sadly) destined to fail no matter how significant the trauma. Biased ranting about people who mistreated you neither mends the wounds the trauma inflicted nor tells us anything of existential significance or personal merit. I've read essays about having cancer that were far less powerful than an essay about a case of pneumonia.

    In summation, it's not the trauma that makes a powerful story. It's how the writer approaches the trauma that makes the story powerful. Approach your trauma with elegance and grace--not dramatics and petty complaints.

    If anyone is interested in writing personal essay, give "On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character" by Phillip Lopate a read. There's a free PDF of the essay on Google for your convenience. Lopate asserts that in order to write effective nonfiction you must treat yourself like a fictional character--with full attention to your own faults and foibles.

    Word for the day: Sonder. Defined as the sudden realization that each random passerby (not to mention "villain") is living a life just as vivid, complex, and important as your own. I've met countless "I was bullied" writers in desperate need of that definition.

    ((By the way, I love personal essay/nonfiction--it's all I've published so far and I'm constantly trying to write more of it. Would love to discuss the genre with anyone interested!))
     
    HarleyQ. likes this.
  11. Rafiki

    Rafiki Active Member

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2011
    Messages:
    144
    Likes Received:
    33
    Location:
    California

    The short answer is: 'yes'.

    If you've seen some shit then you're in a better position to empathize with others who've seen the same shit, or even seen shit that is in no way related to the shit you saw beyond a cursory acknowledgement of the fact that they're both shit. I'm not saying this is a universal law, the gods above know there are no absolutes, but it is a fact that some of the best artists struggled against some sort of adversity. It could be racial, gender, depression, drug abuse, war, hell even a physical disability makes the list. Adversity breeds insight and perspective, which really is all that art is.

    I want to point out that I said 'artists' rather than 'writers', because I believe that this extends across all disciplines. It doesn't matter what you're medium is, you have to have perspective before you can create something new.

    Trust me, there's no one more upset about this than I. As a white, straight, middle class, cisgendered, male, I'm about as unique as a ladder in a place that has a lot of ladders. I don't have a problem with drugs, alcohol, or even a secret attraction to my non-existent sister. How the hell am I supposed to rise up and overcome if there's nothing standing in my way?

    Then again, first world problems.
     
  12. Burlbird

    Burlbird Contributor Contributor

    Joined:
    Dec 29, 2011
    Messages:
    972
    Likes Received:
    294
    Location:
    Somewhere Else
    @Rafiki how about you mother? Oedipal problems are quite common but can still be benefactory to a sensible guy aspiring to artistry :D
     
    Rafiki likes this.

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice