One of my earliest memories as a child is falling down and busting my forehead open on an enormous (and sharp) landscaping rock. My parents rushed me to the emergency room, where a doctor decided the wound required stitches. I was made to lie down, and a heavy cloth was draped over my entire face. Presumably this was done to ensure I didn’t see any huge needles—and cry or flinch—but I could hardly breathe. The cloth felt like a lead weight, and I kept sucking in the same hot, sweaty air. And then for a brief moment, my father lifted up the cloth and said, “Peekaboo!” and I experienced a moment of cold, fresh air. Then the cloth went back down.
I experienced other weird accidents as a child—getting stung by a nest of wasps, falling into a pool without knowing how to swim—and these moments have held in them the essence of life, before my own self-awareness had time to take shape. In his essay at Glimmer Train, Kurt Rheinheimer mentions these times as rich material for building fiction:
I have long felt that the most precious vein for material is from just before I knew who I was and what was going on. … I still experienced life only as it unfolded—with minimal if any awareness of the processes of living life—both my own and those of my parents and brothers and sister. And somehow those “pure” experiences have translated themselves into fiction better than anything else I’ve found.
Read Kurt’s full essay: Writing About Family.
For more inspiration, check out the latest from Glimmer Train:
- Reading by Mark Fishman
- Playing and Planning by Zehra Nabi
- Story of My Stories by John S. Walker
Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.
[…] view post at https://janefriedman.com/what-early-experiences-inform-your-fiction/ […]
funny you should use a red tricycle as your image for this post. A classic icon of childhood it holds deeper meaning for me. Meant to be a family funny, it has become a taunt to my character. Apparently as a child of three, I took some sort of glee in backing my smaller brother into a corner and smashing his toes with my wheels. I am not a wicked or cruel person, so I can only imagine that he had done something to provoke this evil streak in me. But of course, that doesn’t fly in family gatherings. Rather, the meaning prevails, that I am cruel and wicked and evil. And yes, it has made some rather stark appearances in my writing.
ps, I do know different, that I am not, in fact, cruel or wicked. Indeed, I am a kind and generous person. Just don’t get to near me when I’m riding my tricycle!!!