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Drawing from your memories and experiences can add a personal touch to your writing, but you can take it a step further by rewriting historical events to add new twists and turns to your plot. Young Writer Allison is here today to tell us all about her method of mixing fact and fiction! 

There’s something about a good story from long ago that fills me with smiles. A book about family, joy, lessons learned—and of course, real people and events don’t hurt. Some of my favorite books are based on the author’s actual life and experiences growing up.

Take “Betsy-Tacy” (which I am currently reading for the 4th time). Maud Hart Lovelace based the stories off of her own childhood in Mankato, Minnesota. In her beautiful stories, Maud becomes Betsy and Mankato becomes Deep Valley, Minnesota. (Speaking of Mankato, Laura Ingalls resides there for a while as well—both in her books and in reality. Mankato seems to be the spot for authors!) But back to my point: places and experiences drawn from our own experiences or from history can impact our writing so deeply.

What kind of experience, you ask, is good enough for my beautiful baby story? The answer is almost any experience. A memory of jumping on the trampoline in the backyard with your best friend with the sky blue and the grass freshly cut; the smell of the neighbors’ barbecue and the taste of summer nights in the air—what could you turn that into? How could you incorporate it into your messy, rough-draft story? Will it make it through to the final copy?

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