Guest Author - Elsa Neal
While some writers find a rich source of material in their own lives, a different type of writer prefers to immerse herself in a fiction world that bears little or no resemblance to any part of her life. There may be nothing “wrong” with her life at all, but everyone needs a break now and then and writing can be a total escape, even from a near perfect life. In fact, putting all the negatives, soap opera-ism, and melodrama into your writing rather than taking it out on your family can sometimes even help to keep your relationships happier and healthier.
Some escapist writers like to source every part of their story from their imagination, while others find themselves using the imaginative backdrop to explore everyday concepts they find intriguing or difficult to understand.
History is rich with such ideas that no longer make much sense today: slavery, piracy, colonisation that wipes out entire civilisations – fantasy and science fiction vehicles allow the writer to play with different scenarios and plots without needing to be historically accurate if it doesn’t fit the story.
On a smaller scale, it can be refreshing to write each day from the perspective of a main character who is completely different to you. Seeing a scenario from a new point of view like this can make even the most realistic fiction feel like escapist fiction for the writer. A police officer whose daily job requires her to be tough and assertive might find it relaxing to write chick lit about a regular woman who worries about her weight. And the weight-watching office clerk might work off the day’s boredom writing from the point of view of a tough police officer.
Changing your perspective also stretches your empathy muscles when it comes to understanding people in real life whom you initially find incomprehensible.
The most straightforward themes and concepts, like love, hope, fear, and friendship, have new territory to cover when they’re explored in a world with different rules to ours. Similarly, the ordinary world of an average character is a great contrast to unusual experiences or themes, like alien life, the supernatural, the future, and magic.
To help you develop a completely different perspective for your main character, Noah Lukeman’s The Plot Thickens offers some excellent exercises that you can use on new or already-developed characters. (Click here to read my review.)
Or try your hand at escaping into a genre that differs completely from your own life, with some advice from the greats : How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction features essays by Ray Bradbury and Stephen King.
