Week Two: Life and Writing

Since I like to write about fantasy and science-fiction, I at first thought that it shouldn't matter where I come from. If the places I write about are far off or non-existent apart from in my head, should it matter? Well, even if I’m not writing about the place directly, it impacts my writing in that the place somehow works its way in.

I used to live in a small town called Emsworth, down on the coast of Hampshire, and now I live in New Alresford, which is further north. Both are small towns, rather quiet and out of the way, and in my writing I tend to set my stories in places like this. Because these are places I know, and I can connect with them.

In the same way, what I read also has similar effects. I mostly read adventure stories, be they fantasy or science-fiction, or just an adventure which fits into neither category. And most of these stories include animals either as secondary characters or as the main protagonists. Reading such works impacts my writing because I find myself writing about similar subjects; adventures which take the reader into new worlds, be they in a fantasy land or a futuristic world.

What happens in an author’s life impacts on what they write about; Emily Dickinson and John Cheever are examples of this. When an author writes something, part of their life is written into the work. It may be a small, insignificant detail, but that could make all the difference.