Today I happened to be listening to the radio when Katherine Paterson was being interviewed. Katherine Paterson writes Young Adult novels, stories aimed at young teens. I don't think I've ever read any of her books, but have heard of "Bridge to Terabithia," and "Jacob Have I Loved," both Newberry medalists, I believe. She has an interesting biography, born in China, lived in the South, worked in Japan. What struck me was a a discussion about how she got the ideas for the characters in books. Did they come from her family or her own children? She said two intriguing things. First, that a lot of what she writes about comes from herself, from her own thoughts and feelings. She laughed and said "You could learn a lot about me by reading my books." The second was that book characters can't really be based on real people because, "People are too complex, they're too contradictory." She went on to say that people are always doing contradictory things, things we wouldn't expect or that go against our understanding of them. "Real" people are too complicated to put into stories.
I think both are true and related ideas. Writers are always advised to write about what they know best, and what do we know best...ourselves. We have to draw upon our own lives for ideas and insights. I think writers might think they are using a different voice, but, underneath, what they are revealing is a part of themselves. Many writers talk about the writing process like giving birth. Maybe through writing we are able to give voice to feelings we may not even know we have. At the same time, parts of our lives can be complicated, complex, and contradictory. How can we make a simple story from things we can't explain to ourselves? Or, can telling the story bring some order to what on the surface feels too confusing?
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