Ever Sought Direct Experience?

Stuart Dren

Stuart Dren

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Have you ever tried to experience something solely for the sake of writing it?

It doesn't have to be as extreme as going up the Congo River or driving an ambulance in a warzone. It could be shooting a bow, loading a magazine, riding a horse, walking around in plate armour, replacing a toner cartridge, lighting a fire with flint, Being Really Cold™, skinning a rabbit, that kind of thing.

How did it turn out? Was it worth it?
 
No, I just live life and then let those experiences guide some of my writing. I have done quite a few things, but never with the intention of having them guide my writing.

That said, the things that happen in ones life can certainly be good fodder for writing. I have shot a bow, but I don't write fantasy so the experience is almost completely useless to me. But I've done other things that I could think on to make certain elements of my fiction more realistic.

Eventually, after having a lot happen to me in my life, I've come to appreciate calm and nothingness happening. I'd rather take a few dull days than a couple of days that will give me more writing inspiration. Reading other books is enough.

I've never been a storm chaser.


Interesting topic, though, and I am curious what other members may have done.
 
Can't say I've taken classes just to experience stuff to research,experience and write since I have no cash available. I try to write only about classes I have really taken.
 
I can't recall deliberately seeking out an experience in order to write about it. I have taken notes on unexpected experiences though. Had a bad fall out hiking that resulted in lots of blood and a mild concussion. As soon as I got the blood stopped, I pulled out my notebook and started writing. My husband asked what the hell I was doing. I told him I was afraid if I didn't write down the details immediately, I might forget the details of what a head injury felt like. He just shook his head and muttered, "Writers are not like the rest of us."
 
I can't think of anything brand new that I tried, but I've purposefully reaquainted myself with things. One that stands out in my mind is an incident while I was writing Reset. In the book, my two characters wake up in the beginning to learn that they erased their own memories in order to forget all the loss and horrors they experienced during the apocalypse that only they survived. The story involves a lot of discovery. My first-person MC describes her feelings and experiences listening to music or tasting foods she can't remember, being intimate for the first time, etc. They try whiskey one night, and she hates it. I've had whiskey too many times to remember how it felt the first time, so I bought a smallish bottle of the worst and cheapest whiskey I could find. I wanted it to burn my esophagus and turn my stomach, which it did. And I think that scene contains some of my best descriptive work ever, lol.
 
Madman Starryteller said:
No, I just live life and then let those experiences guide some of my writing. I have done quite a few things, but never with the intention of having them guide my writing.

That said, the things that happen in ones life can certainly be good fodder for writing. I have shot a bow, but I don't write fantasy so the experience is almost completely useless to me. But I've done other things that I could think on to make certain elements of my fiction more realistic.

Eventually, after having a lot happen to me in my life, I've come to appreciate calm and nothingness happening. I'd rather take a few dull days than a couple of days that will give me more writing inspiration. Reading other books is enough.
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Yeah I can relate, though I won't presume as much has happened to me as it has to you. I recall telling my (awesome, kind) colleague that I liked "domestic shit." As in, cooking dinner with someone, lounging on the sofa, a walk downtown to buy a grocery. She winced. Her and her immediate family ride motorcycles. She's learning guitar for an upcoming concert. A photo of her wouldn't even be able to stay still. I don't have FOMO with those things, though perhaps I would have when I was younger.
Rzero said:
I can't think of anything brand new that I tried, but I've purposefully reaquainted myself with things. One that stands out in my mind is an incident while I was writing Reset. In the book, my two characters wake up in the beginning to learn that they erased their own memories in order to forget all the loss and horrors they experienced during the apocalypse that only they survived. The story involves a lot of discovery. My first-person MC describes her feelings and experiences listening to music or tasting foods she can't remember, being intimate for the first time, etc. They try whiskey one night, and she hates it. I've had whiskey too many times to remember how it felt the first time, so I bought a smallish bottle of the worst and cheapest whiskey I could find. I wanted it to burn my esophagus and turn my stomach, which it did. And I think that scene contains some of my best descriptive work ever, lol.
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It's a small thing, which I think we're realistically more likely to do.

A teacher of mine once recounted how she used her husband to help enact fight scenes in her novels, and work out the physical motions in her head.
 
Stuart Dren said:
As in, cooking dinner with someone, lounging on the sofa, a walk downtown to buy a grocery.
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This is the type of excitement I like.

I recall now that I did start a university course for the sake of improving my writing. An advanced course in English literature and such. Did not finish as I got sick. But that was a way in which I sought direct experience to guide my writing, I suppose?
 
Stuart Dren said:
A teacher of mine once recounted how she used her husband to help enact fight scenes in her novels, and work out the physical motions in her head.
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I dare not imagine where that would lead me if my wife was a writer.

The only thing I can relate to this is one story that involved a trek through Limerick. I walked some of the route just to pick out those things that stood out to me in the order in which I noticed them, making mental notes as I walked. My stories aren't all that adventurous.
 
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