This is Real Life

Do you write in a journal or diary or even a personal blog where you let it all out? Well, I do. (no, not here. At least, not usually!) I have kept a diary on and off since I was a kid. Some diaries I didn’t dare bare it all (I was mostly just going through the motions), and in others I bare every bit of grit stuck in my eye (particularly during ‘tough’ times). And lately, some of the tidbits from my journal are starting to feel like a story. Like a plot. Like a piece of women’s fiction that many might relate to and may one day work its way into a story of mine. Or become its very own full-length story.

Usually I have little pieces of my day or life that seep into a story. Things like this: …baby who can only scoot forwards traps you in the shower by scooting up to the shower door. Yes, the little hand prints on the shower door are adorable, but how the hell are you going to get out without toppling and bashing the little guy with the door? Followed by “Did I put honey in my tea already? Better add more just in case… And I think an Oreo would go lovely with that.” Let’s go for a cross-country ski using the new baby sled I so desperately wanted for Christmas! Oh, look at that… it falls over ALL the time. Grrr. Better have another Oreo.

This is Jean.
This is real life: blurry and unstaged.

But really, those are just a few little things that might flesh out a scene.

What I’m really talking about are those tough times when I write out everything that is going on to help me deal with it. Like the premature birth of my first child. I kept a journal as I dealt with 42 days of her being in the hospital, being a mother, the panic, the immediate love, the worries, etc., etc. It really helped. And right now I am doing the Sandwich Generation thing where I am raising my own family and spending every weekend with my parents as my mother is ill.

And one day I could see some of these things becoming the core of a women’s fiction piece because I know I am not the only one dealing with these sorts of things and they are something others can relate to. These things are very real and I have enough detail and true emotion recorded to really bring it alive. With a good dose of humour, of course. The only issue would be making it ‘new’ enough that I wouldn’t get bored or bogged down by ‘reliving it’ all again.

How about you? Does real life ever make its way into your work?