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| Tips & Advice Share your tips, tricks and advice. |
03-16-2007, 12:44 AM
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#1
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Addict
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Australia
Gender: Female
Posts: 177
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Stories upsetting people close to you
I have written many short stories that are very close to my real life experiences, however I have exaggerated and changed them in parts to make the stories more interesting.
I would love to send them off to magazines to have a shot at getting them published but I am worried that if they do, they might upset people close to me.
As an example, read my story 'Tears on the kitchen floor'. These are based on real feelings that have been exaggerated, and I'm worried that if my mother ever read it she would be devestated. I love my mother and the girl in the story is not entirely me.
http://www.writingforums.com/showthread.php?t=73993
Writing under a pseudonym is an option, but in a way I would like to share my successes with my family as well.
Help! |
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03-16-2007, 05:16 AM
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#2
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Chile
Gender: Male
Posts: 290
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Ask your mother what she thinks of it, tell her it has fiction in it, she should be able to understand.
__________________
"Roses are red, violets are blue, all of our bases are belong to you." - Someone
"There are only 10 types of people in the world -- those who understand binary, and those who don't." - Someone else
Last edited by Umogrim : 03-16-2007 at 03:51 PM.
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03-16-2007, 07:04 AM
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#3
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Profound Writer
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Twyford, UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,275
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Yeah, if you make sure to explain that it is only based on real life, then she should be ok with it.
__________________
"Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you"
-"The Wasteland" by T.S. Elliot
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03-16-2007, 08:21 AM
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#4
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Profound Writer
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,464
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Autobiographical writing is almost bound to upset people close to you, in fact you can upset whole towns and even countries; a perfect example is Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, where the writer upset the town of Limerick and the whole of Ireland, and won prizes for his book. I’m not a fan.
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03-16-2007, 08:57 AM
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#5
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Adept Writer
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Maine
Gender: Male
Posts: 878
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If your mother doesn't understand the difference between you and your stories, get a new mother.
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03-16-2007, 12:26 PM
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#6
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Wordsmith
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: South-east UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,887
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It's a risk you take. I feel strongly a writer has a duty to tell the truth (and by that I don't mean to write only about things that actually happened, but to tell their story as it has to be, to be true to it) and invariably people will mis-read messages.
If you're not willing to take the heat, stick to writing stories that don't matter.
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03-16-2007, 06:11 PM
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#7
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The DEEP Midwest
Gender: Female
Posts: 243
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^^Pretty much...
I did a nonfiction piece for radio that I played for my parents some months after it aired. They weren't happy with it but I told them point-blank that although I will never intentionally hurt them with my writing (no Mommie Dearest here), they won't like or agree with everything I write and there's not a whole lot they can do about that. (Of course, they could choose to stop speaking to me, but even though I'm 99 percent sure they wouldn't do that, I'm willing to risk the 1 percent.)
Several years later I published an erotic short-short story. My family said they were happy for me, but they were choosing not to read it. Fine with me.
__________________
you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write
from "Berryman," W.S. Merwin
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03-16-2007, 07:05 PM
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#8
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Addict
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 179
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When did we all get into the habit of asking our parents to read things we'd written? I thought that went out of vogue when people moved out of their homes.
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03-16-2007, 07:11 PM
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#9
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Writer
Join Date: Mar 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 26
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Hobbes
When did we all get into the habit of asking our parents to read things we'd written? I thought that went out of vogue when people moved out of their homes.
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Word. Actually, I never asked my parents to read my stuff, even when I lived with them.
Don't be worried about upsetting people. You shouldn't have to tiptoe around and censor yourself to protect them. If it becomes an issue, explain why you wrote it. Most people should understand. |
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03-16-2007, 07:55 PM
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#10
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Canada
Gender: Female
Posts: 20
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Don't let other people kill your creative talent, that's what I say, lol! It's not like you're doing it on purpose  Trying to offend them, I mean. |
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03-17-2007, 01:58 AM
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#11
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Addict
Join Date: Jan 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 177
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If you truly want to be a writer you have to write for yourself. Don't censor yourself to please others, no successful author's ever done that. Egar Allan Poe never did and he thought he'd ammounted to nothing because of it, little knowing the truth. Stephen King keeps writing the books he loves to write despite the fact that many people generalize him as a "type writer" so to speak but he's still enjoying what he's doing and has a big audience.
__________________
We are the children of the Nightmares.
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03-17-2007, 06:17 AM
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#12
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Canada
Gender: Female
Posts: 20
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I wonder......if J.K. Rowling had any religious friends that got really offended by her Harry Potter books. If she did and if they condemned her for it, that didn't stop her from continuing to do what she loves to do  |
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03-17-2007, 08:21 AM
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#13
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Profound Writer
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,004
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The story I posted on here most recently made a girl I know cry. That was quite odd, and is the only time my work has upset someone I know.
http://writingforums.com/showthread.php?t=75104 |
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03-18-2007, 03:31 AM
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#14
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Addict
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Australia
Gender: Female
Posts: 177
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Thanks for your advice everyone. You have given me that extra kick of motivation I needed and I will keep writing what I write!
My family should be OK with it, and if they're not them maybe it's time we all discussed these issues anyway!
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03-18-2007, 06:24 AM
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#15
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Addict
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Australia
Gender: Female
Posts: 177
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Anarkos, I'd love to read the story that made your girl cry, but the link's not working. Can you re-post it?
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