Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 23:22:01 EST From: quick tink Subject: Re: [WRITERS] Filler: I need your help! on Fri, 2 Jan 1998 00:41:28 EST, Lvnualwaz wrote wondering about whether anyone would read stories about her life (if I can so cavalierly summarize a fairly complex set of questions). one response: I guess I'm a little unclear. Reader's Digest, for example (maybe not the best example, but...) is full of stories of an individual's life. Bits and pieces, humorous, sentimental, etc. I've got a book somewhere by a college student talking about his less than a year experiences in Japan. And when I look at the bookshelves in the stores, there are plenty of books by various people focusing on their experiences (often in specific areas...My Fight with Toejam, Recovering from Addiction to Fairies, etc.) I think the key is not so much what has happened in your life, but how you write the stories (whether they are first-person experiences or not). I mean, some writers go to exotic places, try all kinds of stuff...and still write badly. Other writers walk down to the streetcorner, watch two kids shake hands, and write a New Yorker piece. :) I have lived in Montana all my life. I don't know anyone famous. Well, you've got Montana to tell us about...for those of us who haven't lived there, it might be kind of exotic in its own way. Really. As for the famous... Quick story from the days I wrote news for a weekly...we had a gasoline tanker blow up one day in the middle of our little town in a pretty spectacular way, but it was the day AFTER our weekly deadline. So the dailies from the surrounding area covered the story, and it would be a week before we would have another edition. But our editor insisted that I do something. I went around that area, knocking on doors. "Were you here the other day when the tanker blew up? Would you mind talking to me about it?" One little old lady insisted she wasn't famous, and I shouldn't waste my time on her... She had been sitting in her living room, reading from the bible (she remembered the verses and quoted them). "I was reading....when the "boom" came! It shook the whole house, but I finished reading the verse", she said. She closed her eyes and prayed. Then she looked outside to see if anyone needed help. There was some more to her story, but that's enough. Between her and three other locals (none famous), I ended up with a front page, above-the-fold piece that went on inside. And people in town told me that I really had the news about that explosion--a week after the dailies and the TV stories had done their coverage. She wasn't famous. But her story has stuck with me for quite a few years. :) Most of the people who have stories written about their lives are well :) known, aren't they? To have someone do a biography of you, yes, either you are well-known or have something in your life that the writer believes other people will be interested in. But I thought you wanted to write your own stories? In that case, you just have to believe other people will be interested in them, and make sure to tell them in ways that intrigue other people... :) I know that there are plenty of Writers out there who could lead :) me, guide me in a direction. If I do this, how do I start. I have no :) idea. write down a story. revise it, polish it. if you want to, run it through here (SUB: and we'll CRIT:) if you are going for a book, write, write, write... along the way, I'd suggest picking out some stories and sending them off to the magazines. It's a bit faster response than novels (well, it can be--depends on the magazine). I'm not sure I really answered the question(s) you were asking, but with luck there might be something here that will help. tink