Christine Kohler

Jan 31, 2017 10:14 AM EST

A lot of good comments for those of us planning to use some of our family's history in fiction. You are telling us to do the hard thing--impersonalize it and make it a fiction story. I particularly like your suggestion to write a true non-fiction family history FIRST, to get it out of your system and so other family members who don't have access to that trunk can share in their ancestors' history. Thanks for the post.

- Robyn Echols

Jan 31, 2017 10:14 AM EST

Excellent. I wish I would have had this info when I decided to make my family's story into a novel. Fortunately I did at least some of what you mention here. I first wrote a family history, then started making it into a novel. Eventually the characters based on the real people took on lives of their own. I am still amazed at the great plot line that the real story provided. I only had to ramp up the conflict a bit and embellish the scenes, because the real life story was so dramatic and I had so many amazing anecdotes to work with.

- www.roseseilerscott.com

Jan 31, 2017 11:41 AM EST

Robyn, I agree this is excellent advice to write the true life story first. I wonder if it might also free up writers who have trouble letting go of what really happened to write what needs to happen to form a novel ARC. It might also help some writers let go of the tedious details and anecdotes that don't add to scenes and sequence. Thanks for commenting! I'll draw a name at the end of the week to win a copy of the novel!

btw, if you want to sign up for my blog articles, mostly on writing craft, you can do so under the Blogletter tab. Thanks!

- Christine Kohler

Jan 31, 2017 11:45 AM EST

Rose, isn't that so true! Real life is more fascinating than what our imaginations can create. It's why I believe that nonfiction research is the bedrock of fiction. (I have an article about that on my blog. It's easier to find the articles by title on the Blogletter tab.)

Your name is thrown into the drawing now. At the end of the week I'll announce who wins a copy of the novel!

btw, if you want to sign up for my blog articles, mostly on writing craft, you can do so under the Blogletter tab. Thanks!

- Christine Kohler

May 19, 2014 11:37 AM EDT

In the setting of each scene I try to use imagery and similies to distract from the natural gruesomeness that is happening, while holding he protagonist on the razor edge of the conflict.

- Judy Dick

May 24, 2014 5:53 PM EDT

Excellent point, Judy! Yes, imagery and similes are effective ways to express a graphic scene without giving concrete details within the text. I was thinking, in particular, of synedoche where a part stands for a whole, or a metaphor. GOOD-BYE BOAT, a picture book about death is an excellent example.

- Christine Kohler

Sep 20, 2013 9:31 AM EDT

I'm grateful that you see how war is almost genetic in the way the after effects are handed down to subsequent generations. I believe this too and it's one of the reasons I am so passionate about peace!

More and more my writing seems to be about war and peace.

- Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Sep 24, 2013 11:31 AM EDT

I, too, am passionate about peace. "Blessed are the peacemakers." Matt.

When I was studying Shoichi Yokoi's ordeal surviving in the jungles of Guam for 28 years after WWII, and then wrote about this experience through my fictional character Isamu Seto, I didn't think about looking at symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress. Yet, once the story was done, and I was reading it in the editing stage for my publisher, it became very clear to me that Seto certainly suffered from extreme PTS.

In NO SURRENDER SOLDIER the different characters show a complex web of how war has affected them all, even Kiko who is 15 and has not lived through a war. It also shows how character is formed by the war, some remain bitter, some afraid, yet some have the courage to break the bonds and courageously move forward in life, living it in kindness and compassion. This is a cross-roads Kiko faces from the first chapter on--how will he deal with the after-effects of war?

- Christine Kohler