Writing Prompt: Writing from Personal Experience
Mining your personal experiences for writing inspiration!
Writing from Personal Experience
Often writers draw from their personal experience to write powerful new fictional pieces.
This post is for those writers interested in writing a piece from their own experience that is not a literal representation of the experience, but uses the experience as a jumping off point to tell a fictional story.
Some examples of writers who turned personal experiences into striking fictional narratives are:
Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie draws on his experience with an ill sister.
Su Hwang’s poetry collection Bodega draws experiences in their local corner store.
Carmen Maria Machado’s short stories in Her Body and Other Parties draws on her experience as a woman who has been different physical sizes throughout her life.
The upcoming novel True Biz by Sara Novic draws on her experience as a deaf woman in educational settings.
The just released novel The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan draws from her fears during motherhood.
Poetry by Lucille Clifton, especially Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir
Here is a new prompt to help you begin creating this type of fiction-from-truth narrative:
PROMPT
Make a list of 10 impactful, memorable moments and/or experiences in your life
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Naked Writing Blog to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.