Writing and Life Collide

A lot of authors talk about how life influences your writing. Well, I never believed them. I mean I write about dragons and royal courts and occasionally the heart-wrenching relationship. There are no dragons or royal courts in my life. I have professors and classmates. And I can definitely assure you that I don’t have a heart-wrenching relationship. I have really close friends but never anything close to a romantic relationship. My life lacks all of those things. 

Writing is my escape. I use it so that I don’t have to think about the various things going on in my life. They shouldn’t overlap. But recently I finished Draft Zero for my GUARDIANS story. It was my 2014 NaNoWriMo novel and I just got around to finishing up the last 20,000 words early this February.

I wrote 70k about a character trying to choose between two identities. Two choices that would take her in widely different directions. Once the decision was made, she wouldn’t be able to return. Therefore, she spends nearly half the book traveling through the desert (a translator, liminal phase) between her two choices. And she doesn’t even make the decision until much later, when she absolutely has to decide what to do with her life. 

Sound familiar? 

Probably not, but I’ll lay it all out for you. I’m a biochemistry major that loves writing. I have to decide between writing or medicine because I know I can’t have both. And even if I make that decision. I have to decide how much of my life I should devote to writing. Is it a part time or full time job? Is it going to my career or is it going to be a very time-consuming hobby.

I’ve been lulled into a sense of false security because I’m still in school (my liminal phase) and I know I don’t have very much time left to make my decision, but I’m waiting for the final blow in a sense. I waiting for someone to just scream at me and tell me what to do. 

I literally wrote 70,000 words about this decision I can’t make.

My character definitely made a decision, but I still don’t know what I want to do. 

Anyone else find that they unconsciously write parts of their life into their stories? How do you feel about it?