Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: The rich green vineyards of Northern California
Janet has been known to say that many books need to be written, which do not need to be published. I’ve written several of this type myself. You can check on Pioneer Stock at the Library of Congress, but unless you are related to one of my ancestors or me, this book will be of little interest.
We receive many queries from earnest writers who have survived a harrowing experience or who have endured a difficult family life. Mommie Dearest, unfortunately, does not appear to have been an isolated tale. Therapists frequently encourage their clients to write down their stories as a way to deal with their grief and emotions–and that makes such manuscripts valuable on several levels.
But writers often are admonished “to write for the felt need.” Their work should provide a “take away” for the readers, to help them to recognize and to deal with something they may not even have realized concerned them. A tragic story can highlight the capacity of the human spirit to overcome tremendous odds. Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle is an example of such a book. But along with telling the tale of her troubling childhood, Walls gave us humor, pathos, astonishing events, and the weary reflections of a child trying her best with impossible parents.
Her book became a bestseller. But does that make her story more important than yours and mine? More interesting to the general reader perhaps, but not more important.
My paternal family struggled while I wrote Pioneer Stock. They all knew I had been researching family history, but the anguish of the present left them with little imagination for the past. Yet, in the midst of one argument or tense moment after another, I could dissipate some of the negativity with, “This just in from the genealogy front,” and tell them a family story.
They would set aside their differences, pause to listen, stop to comment, and then return to the task at hand. They all read the book. It didn’t need to be published. Just putting it down served an important purpose.
So write away–you’re a writer, aren’t you? If yours is a personal story, think twice about whether it needs to be published.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post! This one hit home with me. I started out my WIP focusing it around a difficult situation I just survived. But as the story has developed, it’s become something much bigger than rehashing my circumstances. Hopefully I can do it justice in a way that will draw others in.
Another great post, Michelle. I’ve dealt with a lot of tragedy in my life and I know that my life experiences bleeds into my work. How can it not? It’s who we are and why we are what we are. Fiction not only provides us with an escape (we get to be 10 again if we are writing middle grade or a teen if young adult) but a way to deal with life joys and sorrows. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is our writing. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to share it or sell it. It means that the gift is in the process itself. Everything else is icing on the top. But I really, really do love icing and would love to have some of it. Good luck to my fellow writers and may each of you find joy in the craft and lots of icing on top.
And if it doesn’t need to be published?
Start a blog.
Buffy, you’re so right. Our life experiences bleed into our work.
Okay, so I can’t freeze things with my fingers like my latest character…but I sure can relate to her feeling of isolation in high school. Yeah, cuz I went through that. But it helps throw a certain twist on my characters, gives them depth, right? 🙂
And, yeah, if it’s gonna be pubbed, it’ll be pubbed. If not…that’s okay too. God’s timing. God’s plan.
Thanks for the great post today. Very thought provoking. Have a safe Fourth of July weekend, everyone!!
THANK YOU for esteeming the writing separate from the publishing!
So many times people have told me that I need to write a book about my life experiences and often have said it will have to be classified as fiction because nobody will believe it to be true. Although I have journaled, I don’t feel the need for writing these experiences for the public, although who knows if I find it would be edifying to others someday I may. For now, I find that my vast experiences give me the ability to “write what I know” in a creative way, through fiction.