Let’s be honest – you are boring. Me too! Nobody, except you and people very close to you, are really interested in your personal story. Unless, of course, you were the first person to walk to the moon – without shoes – in winter! Things that matter to you will not necessarily strike a chord with others, unless, of course, you can use your experience to tell your personal story in an interesting way. The best way to do this is to write a novel with invented characters and weave your story into the novel. This is exactly what I did with Chasing Paper – or at least one part of it.

My own personal story

Way back in the early 1980’s I was running a building company in Norfolk, England. I won’t bore you with the details but, not to put too fine a point on it, my partner screwed me over for more than £25,000 ($40,000) – about £75,000 ($120,000) in today’s money. Looking back, I have nobody to blame but myself: I trusted him and he grabbed the opportunity to save his own business at my expense. It left a nasty, bitter taste in the mouth, but my lesson was learned and I never again placed that amount of trust in any business partner!

What I did do, though, was to write Chasing Paper twenty years later because it was both catharcic and also it had the makings of a good plot. Naturally, I had to embellish the story and then take the main character much further than anything I had ever experienced myself, but I guess that’s what lots of writers do. SO don’t ever think that you can’t tell your personal story. Simply wrap it up in a good novel and let others think that you invented it 🙂