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Blogs by Joel Arnold
Tragedy - now with 50% more pathos! 11/9/2010 1:29:58 PM
One of the "benefits" of being a writer is the ability to put personal tragedy to use in creative ways. Of course, this counts for other types of art as well. I mean, what would the blues be without, you know, people having experienced the blues? For example, encountering some asshole who treats me like crap; after my initial anger subsides, I later think 'This person would make a great character in a story' or 'the mechanics/feelings/maneuverings/emotional jockeying of that incident would be really useful in this scene I'm writing.'
Pretty much all the really dumb things I did when younger are great sources of fodder for my writing (and believe me, that's a lot of fodder!) When I hear of the tragedies that have happened with others I know (and I don't mean fresh tragedy - I mean after a good deal of time and emotional distance has passed) I often think what great story material!
I know that may sound cold, like I'm getting off on the tragedy and drama of others, but I feel many of these very personal stories are important to share - either in a biographical-yet-fictional context (w/ the person's permission and/or 'the names have been changed, etc') or fictionalized to the point where it's mainly the emotional resonance I'm trying to get at. I think the more we learn that others have survived through tragedy, or at least experienced these tragedies, then that's more reason for people to not worry so much about being 'burdened with terrible secrets' - or at least realize that they're not the only ones to have gone through such tragedy - perhaps relieving them of some of the loneliness, the self-loathing by having characters they can relate to in their own way.
