Too personal?

Lyaiera

I've just started writing and I'm worried about something that's cropping up: all my writing is incredibly personal. It's about what I feel, have felt a long time, putting into words thoughts that plague me. It's all a little emo. But I also find the best poetry shares something of the poet. It might not reveal them, and lay bare their deepest self unless expressed through a relationship with a cat, or kettle, but there's something there of them.

I went to a poetry reading on Monday, and I was bored (but not too bored) by the poet because he seemed to give over to high falutin' thoughts borne by inanimate objects and even spoke about of how he reached for a thesaurus. None of that seems in any way to be driven by something coming from the person. Now I fully accept that maybe I didn't engage with his poetry, and that there's something deeply felt to it, why write if not?

But I'm left to wonder how can I read out loud and expect other people, with valued indifference look at me and judge what I wrote? And of course I also wonder if what I'm writing is just too fcuking caught up in myself and can speak to no-one but me?

bigsmokeintern

For some people, the best stuff HAS to be personal - the only way they can say something interesting. The more you write and the more you share - there are plenty of open mic nights in Dublin for sharing stuff - the more you'll get a sense of whether your work is communicating something to others (or even which pieces seem to work and which might need another draft or two or seven).

EileenG

Good writing is personal. It may not be about what actually happened to you, but it's powered by it.

Occasionally, someone asks something like, "What is the most terrible thing that happened to you?" and I tell them it's on page 97 of the book.

If you just make up a lot of stuff and write it down, and there is no emotional involvement, your reader won't get involved either. If there is a piece of your soul on the page, it will show.

Das Kitty

You're in good company if your poetry is personal. The best stuff always is, in my opinion.

In fiction it's a bit different as the truth does not always make the best story. I often start a story or scene based on a true event and then when it comes to revising the true bit is the bit that doesn't fit and I end up changing it.

My mother has a mindset that my characters are wholly based on real individuals. She doesn't get how you can just make people up. :pac: I'm trying to figure out now how to let her know that my novel's lead character has the same given name as her partner. Should be fun.