Do you write your story from firsthand experiences or is it because you want to experience it?

[MTDG]

Actually this is a nice topic. I was just thinking about this and saying to myself that I hate the fact that I can't help but write/draw things that truly happened to me (fictional deaths and supernatural stuff aside... sadly). Also my characters all share small bits of my personality... Some of my friends are reading my latest work in progress comic and thinking it was intended to be autobiographical, hahaha. It's just that in the last couple of years a lot of interesting stuff happened to me, almost like in a book.

I try to create original stories but I also think it's important to have a tangible base of experience. Researching is important and I always do that but it cannot replace first hand experience. In the past I wrote some stories based purely on imagination but the characters and the dynamics were a bit blank. Growing up I got better at writing, more mature in the way I treated any topic and living alone teached me many life lessons that improved the way I present a story.

[djourner]

I believe all writing has a bit of the author in it, it's impossible to fully dissociate ourselves from our work when even the particular word or colors we use to represent something could tie into past experiences.
To draw from past experiences is not only a nescessity but inevitable as well, and a lot of artist inevitably reveal something about themselves in their work, wether they like it or not.

That being said, art can come from many places... A desire to experience something akin to the characters is for sure the most common, and it's what our entire fantasy escapism draws from.
But a desire to avoid it could also factor in... Like, nobody really wants a relative they care about to pass away, yet that appears a lot in fiction.
And sometimes a creator just has to pull from purely fictional emotions to create a true feeling, like... Nobody has ever felt magic run through their fingers, or the texture of the scales of a dragon.

At the end of it all, human emotion is the core of all art, i don't think people want nescessarily to experience what any one character goes through, but watching them react to it kindles the bond we created on them on a human level... Even the sad moments can create a resonance.
Not to mention there is the cathartic element to it, seeing characters overcome things we ourselves fear, dread or might even be going through in our personal lives can be freeing... Like you just found the piece of the puzzle you were missing to stop letting those insecurities hold you back.

TLDR: Art is cool

[Grhe]

Pretty much the same for me.

[vothnthorvaldson]

First hand experience mostly.
Although not autobiographical, and set in a fantasy world, I could say the way I'm writing my comic is very close to the way a person write their teenage years in an autobiography: with the memories of their young years but the experience of their current age.

Venting frustration is a big one with me. I wrote some scenes directly after getting problems IRL. I just come back home, write a scene inspired by my issue but adapted to my comic world, it's very relieving

[allenT]

Very well said @djourner. I'm the latter. I want to experience.

Be able to create an 'experience' for myself (and for the readers by the way) is part of why i do this. As a comic creator i am also be a part of my character's journey: when i'm working a scene (key scenes), I'm in sync with the character, feel what he/she feels (not fully but enough), otherwise the scene would have no 'life sparks' in it. Honestly this is more important to me than drawing the pages.

[GumshoeComix]

A lot of stuff that happens in my stories are based off first or secondhand experiences
not everything of course or it'd be a straight-up biography but a lot.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Only firsthand emotional experiences. It's kind of surprising how many different ways I can inject a small part of my personality into my various main characters; half the time I don't even plan on doing it and it just happens anyway.

I sometimes worry that my characters are weird because of it...because most of that 'emotion' is just extrapolated from experiences I've had by myself. ^^; My knowledge of anger mostly comes from playing video games; my knowledge of romance mostly comes from all my sitcom crushes...personally, I still think it's good data to work with, but one of these days I'm going to hire some beta readers and check. ^^;

As for things I want to experience, I generally avoid doing that. 'The road to bad writing is paved with self-insert fanfic'...that's a personal rule for me. When I write wishfully, I usually start to lose perspective, and by the time I realize what I've done I have 30 pages of garbage to edit out...

[HippieGhost]

I do both. Writing is a form of therapy for me in addition to a hobby, so quite a few of my characters are given traumas or issues that I'm dealing with or have dealt with as a way of working through them while also providing an accurate depiction of what they're going through. It hasn't shown up a lot in what I've posted so far but I absolutely use my real-world experiences as part of the process.

That said, there are some things I will never experience. Writing is a way of exploring those experiences on a more personal level while I try to do those issues justice. specific heartbreaks, loss of an S.O, dealing with racism, a lot of these subjects are ones I've never experienced, but I can't expect to do these issues justice in real life if I can't do so fictionally, so I help my characters through it. I research how those experiences have felt for others, and I put myself in their shoes while I work through it. This is how my characters write themselves. I don't plan their lines but I know their motivations, their experiences, and I do what's natural for them.

Then I make myself sad.

[sc101]

Mix of both. Well the experienced stuff is very little as compared to me wanting to become whatever my characters are

[NiWo21k]

A great question, that will get some really interesting replies

For me, I have to say neither. My story is more a continuation of an idea of an P&P RPG that we never came to play. I just reworked it over the years...

[noenoh]

I love this topic.

I think I write my stories based from first+second hand experiences and I must add from my subconcicious (since 2 of them are based on dreams). And the part of "I want to experience them" I dont think its the case but mostly my mind never rests and I wonder al kind of scenarios and how I would react. I focus a lot on the negative ones because I feel the need to be "prepared" for them just in case and I end using everything in my stories and characters as well.

In the end, even if my stories are based on dreams, my dreams are too realistic and structured taht its easy to fit real stuff on them and their characters. I think I lived long enough and expereienced so many things in life that I have left almost no space to "want to experience other things" unless is becoming financially stable irl. yeah I want to experience that lol

[toohalloo]

This is a very interesting discussion! Approaches can vary so much, it's quite cool to see what everyone has to say.

I can only reasonably speak on my own writing process, but the short answer is: both. My experiences inform a large part of my comic writing process, in the sense that a little bit of myself or people I know or relationships I've had go into all of my characters. Never a 1:1 translation but an aspect, a quirk, a turn of phrase - these things go into how I write. As for writing my aspirations - the whole comic is my aspiration! I'd jump at the chance to get all my friends on the ice for D/C league games. Unfortunately, I'm the only one with full hockey gear, which I had to collect over like 3 years to afford the whole set at all. Gear is expensive, but you need it to even play pickup hockey at the rink. You see where the wishful thinking comes in.

EDIT 3/1/2021: I guess brain stuff is an experience thing that goes into literally everything I write, and I totally forgot to mention that.

[MeltingCORE]

Great question! I'm writing a sci-fi series with dark themes. I mean, no, I've obviously never experienced my biology being corrupted into a drone nor have I had my mind devoured. I definitely haven't traveled the multiverse. (I think. ) But my writing does pull from a deep well of life experience I twist into fiction.

[domisotto]

Neither, tbh. I usually write because it entertains me

[Bokyongyo]

Well certain elements of it for sure, in specific with characters just because it grounds characters realistically which is important if you're making a story that's outside our realm of reality..

But for example, a character in my comic is dyslexic (it isn't called that within context of the world or story but many of the traits relating to the disability are similar) but while they have this disability
it doesn't define them just like how it wouldn't define someone in real life.
It's just apart of them which they try to adapt to everyday life with it.

This came from just being around a few people who had the disability, explaining how they maneuver through life with it and how they adapted and grew with it from youth to adult hood; just very interesting and compelling stuff that I wanted to implement in a realistic and respectful manner within one of my characters

[NickRowler]

I do have some aspect of my characters that are slightly based off things I have dealt with, ex. anxiety, depression, eating disorders, mobility issues, etc. But they are not really an exact parallel. I don't really write self inserts.

On the other hand, the only thing I write about that is me wanting to experience things is just having a strong friendship with someone. I often feel very lonely and isolated IRL and I like to not have my characters suffer the same fate.

[crowstories]

Not really either... I mean, my writing is of course informed by my life experiences, but it's not about them. Most of my stories are based around some concept that has nothing to do with me (and it's usually something messed up that I wouldn't want to experience) and then built out into an actual plot from there. I relate to some characters more than others, but none of them are quite like me/how I'd like to be. I do have an idea for a future story where I might have a character deal with some of the things I've experienced, but to date I don't think I've ever written something like that.

[scribesunlimited]

Well, "Insignificant Otters" is sort-of first-hand experience for us, because we act like the two main characters a lot, always bickering and complaining, but in the end still managing to stay together. We're not a desert island at all, but since we share a big house, and can't go out much, it sure feels that way. lol

https://www.tapas.io/series/Iotters

[Dialusion]

A mix of both really. More so I want the character to experience a certain event, but if I went through something that could benefit/work with a character, then I'll see how to include it if at all possible. Experiencing it can really personalize an experience if a character thinks similar to me, but I also have to get in the mind of a character. I'd say, first hand experience is best but if that's not possible, look to other media for ideas.

[Prometheus]

I use a lot of my experience in life to create the inner conflicts of my characters. They aren’t me, necessarily, but they struggle with similar things that I do, or exact things, and so I draw from that to 1) make them more real, and 2) hopefully create something that can help someone else find ways to overcome their inner turmoil. Occasionally, I’ll use settings that are based off of real places I’ve been - or events set in spots where I’ve thought, “What if this happened here or to me?” For instance, I’m at a giant festival, gathering, or basketball game, and I’ll think, “What if a giant monster just blew through this door and I had to run away? And in the process, a group of agents came in after it, trying to stall it so that citizens could get away?” So I use a lot of experience, what if’s, and what I think would be cool ( and admittedly scary) for me to experience in my own life. What if’s in public places are my favorite game to play.