Creative writing- How to use your personal experiences.

Some one once told me there are only fourteen plot lines in the entire world. Every plot comes back to one of the fourteen, they are just re-hashed and slightly altered. Don't ask me what the fourteen plots are though, because I'm stumped after thinking of five. Basically the three main sources of good writing, start with one of these four options.

Rob the cradle.

Use your childhood and drain every last drop from it. Willa Carther said;

" Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen."

This doesn't necessarily mean you need to write your childhood memoirs, after all unless your rich and famous who is really going to care about your childhood. There are exceptions of course. Dave Peltzer wrote three books on his childhood, and all of them are best sellers. Transform the material from your childhood experiences, use it to build characters for your work. Or create a whole new persona totally different from yourself, but using your childhood experience. Write down your first three memories and see if you can make a story out of any of them. When you can't remember any more, keep going and see where it gets you?

Rob the grave.

Not as creepy as it sounds. I simply mean, study the lives of your ancestors. Pick out something that might look like an interesting tale and tell it as your story. Use the information to spark off other ideas, and fill in the gaps in your knowledge with your imagination. This way you can shape the story the way you want it to go, and maybe fit in a beginning, middle or end you may have in mind.

Rob from books.

Not literraly6 of course, that's plagiarism and you will probably get sued. Learn from what other writers have to say, and write variations on themes. It may seem a little naughty at first, as if your stealing other peoples ideas and can't think of any of your own, but bearing in mind there are only fourteen themes in the world, this can't be helped eh? Many great works of fiction have come from other peoples work. Homer wrote The Odyssey and the Iliad out of battle reports; Virgil wrote The Aeneid on Homer's work and continued it, and Dante wrote The Inferno based on Odysseus' trip to the underworld. Do you see what i mean?

Whats to stop you writing a modern day Enid Blyton's famous five? The ideas are endless. If you can't find a story from real life, look into what other peoples books are doing. After all this is your medium. When you read something that really impacts you, take it from there. You only need to use it as a starting point, and your imagination will do the rest.

Your personal experiences.

Always use what is going on in your life. No matter how boring you think it seems. Sometimes just a piece of dialogue is enough to provide you with a fantastic idea. If your looking for a good piece of dramatic writing, then recall a physical or verbal fight and construct a scene around it. Struggle, war, quarrel, or any conflict is a fast paced source of stories.

• Write about a moment of terror you have experienced.

• Write about an incident you avoid remembering, or can't remember clearly, and write about it. By writing about these difficult experiences you will create something that matters to you, and if you write it clearly and use the five senses while writing it ( smell, sight, touch, sound, taste ) then it will evoke such a clear picture for the reader, that they will care about it too.