Edit with me! The good, the bad, and the ugly of writing from personal experience🫣

Where I reveal how to write from life effectively

Great works of fiction are often based in some sort of personal truth. Whether it’s a scene, dialogue exchange, or character inspired by real-life experiences, authors often tap into personal experience as they’re composing their stories.

In fact, two of my authors who have signed with agents recently wrote stories that were based on their own lives in some way; one of these authors created a protagonist whose background closely mirrors her own, and the other fictionalized a family conflict that actually happened in her own life.

In both cases, drawing from personal experience added a layer of authenticity to these authors’ stories — but it also created some unique editorial hurdles.

Here’s what the authors and I discovered as we set out to revise and develop their manuscripts.

Know when to separate yourself from your story

In the case of the first author, whose protagonist was based on her to some degree, we hit a snag in identifying the protagonist’s objective. It wasn’t clear at the beginning of the story what the character wanted, and she often felt more reactive than proactive — she was passively letting things happen to her rather than setting out to achieve a particular goal.

This made it difficult for readers to get invested in the protagonist’s journey. If she wasn’t working toward something, we couldn’t root for her, and there was no incentive to keep reading to see whether she ultimately achieved her goal or not.

After mulling over the issue, the author came to a realization: