For university I wrote an essay about using life experiences and memories to improve fantasy stories. I learned a lot researching and writing my assignment, even if I think I went way off topic, so I’ve briefly summarised my essay below.
3 Ways to Use Life Experiences to Improve Writing:
Use Your Emotional Experiences:
Readers use story details and plot, alongside their own knowledge and experiences, to imagine the story they’re reading in their minds. The stronger our imagery and the more familiar character experiences are to our own, the better the imagined world, engagement with the story, and empathy for characters.
Evoking empathy is especially important in fantasy, as the worlds are often vastly different to our own. Ed and Al’s grief and determination in Fullmetal Alchemist, a dark fantasy, is realistic, because if there was a chance to bring a dead parent back to life, most people would try it. (The anime broke my heart in so many places and will always be my favourite).

We can use our emotional experiences to enhance stories. For my creative assignment I wrote about an anxious mage in a medieval fantasy world. The story was mostly fiction, but basing my character’s emotions on my experiences of anxiety made my character more realistic, as did using imagery like ‘wretched sobs shook my shoulders.‘ I also gave my character a family heirloom, which made him easier to relate to: Items readers recognise prompt them to relive emotions they associate with their own trinkets, leaving a stronger emotional impact.
Think about how various emotions, sadness, joy, etc, make you feel. Write a list of imagery and metaphors you associate with those emotions to use in a story. You may not be a mage or a sword-fighter, but you can focus on the emotions your character would feel: The exhilaration of a perfectly cast spell, or the focus it takes to cross blades with an enemy.
Create Characters Based on Your Personality:
Cheryl Moskowitz developed a technique called ‘Self as Source,’ and claims characters created using parts of our personality are more believable. I chose two conflicting aspects of myself, calm and nervous, and listed metaphors and imagery about each state of mind, considering all five senses.
I also outlined my character’s looks, likes, dislikes, imagined their typical day, named them, and chose a setting, Glastonbury Tor, where they could meet. The Tor is a beautiful location, but the strong winds add a hint of panic: The perfect place for my calm and nervous character to meet.

I used my mannerisms, memories, and Ulric Neisser’s five ways we know ourselves to enhance my characters:
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Ecological Self: Consider how your character moves and what objects they focus on. My nervous character is cautious and focuses on his mother’s amulet.
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Interpersonal Self: Describe how your character interacts with others. My nervous character makes limited eye contact and twists his hands together.
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Narrative Self: Consider your character’s memories and hopes for the future. My character remembers his mother’s death and hopes to find someone who understands him.
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Private Self: Consider your character’s thought patterns/inner perception. My character misses his mother, wishes his father accepted him, and believes he’s not good enough.
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Conceptual Self: Consider what social/cultural concepts your character has. My character is a son, in a farming village, but also a mage, intelligent and different from other villagers.
I built complex characters that reflected my experiences and emotions, but I made sure they were different from me to avoid creating ‘Mary Sue’ characters (authorial inserts identical to the author). Use your emotions and experiences to create believable characters, but make sure you separate your characters from yourself enough!
Use Aspects of Reality and Places You’ve Visited in Fantasy Stories:
Readers are more likely to relate to stories if they can link them to their own world and lives, so we should aim to include some realistic, recognisable, elements in fantasy. My favourite example is Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon: His mannerisms are based on a cat (chasing light, tilting his head) and this helps viewers relate to him even though he’s a dragon.

Real places, especially historical locations, are great to inspire fantasy settings. In my creative piece I used Glastonbury Tor to inspire my setting, a key site from Arthurian Legend that most fans will be familiar with. I had to embellish details, as the stone structure at the top wasn’t there in the time period my story is set in, but it’s fantasy so changing details is okay!

‘Magnificent sunlight streamed through the archway to the east, like a doorway to another world of emerald slopes and whistling winds.’
Using a place I’d visited added more detail to my story. Describing photos could work too, but don’t forget about smells, sounds, etc. Think about how to use realistic elements in fantasy stories. Base fantasy creatures on similar real animals. Use familiar locations as basis for your setting. Watch the birds fly, take notes on scenery, and use those details to connect with readers.
I think this scratches the surface of what people really mean when they say write what you know: If we only wrote about things we’ve experienced our writing would be pretty dull, but we can use our experiences and emotions to enhance fantasy stories.
Thanks for Reading!
I was sceptical of the life writing module in my MA. I didn’t think I’d gain anything from it as a fantasy writer, but my essay was more useful than I expected and it’s given me lots to think about for future stories. I’ll revisit/expand on this topic in future: My essay was three times the length of this post!
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Special Announcement: Scottie Kaye released her entire Sleeping Lotus Series yesterday, and book one is free until the 20th of March. If you like Steamy Fantasy Romance, check it out here:
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Do you use your emotions or life experiences in your writing? Base your characters on yourself or others? Have the places you’ve visited inspired story locations? Chat in the Comments!
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This post is part of the Author Toolbox Blog Hop, hosted by Raimey Gallant. The hop runs from January to October, sharing resources and tips for writers. Check out other hop posts here:
My past posts:
Lessons in Storytelling from TV and Film
MA Creative Writing
Great suggestions, Louise. It’s easy to forget these and we shouldn’t!
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Thanks 🙂 I’m forever forgetting the bit about emotions, one day I’m going to make an ultimate writing checklist!
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Tbese are great tips! My idea on writing what you know revolved around learning and research about things that you don’t know yet (https://maurusrealm.wordpress.com/2018/12/12/writing-about-places-youve-never-been-to/), but also injecting your personal experiences into it. Then again, it was about location.
I learned a great deal here, and I can’t wait to use them in my next writing!
Thanks for this post, and I hope you have a great day!
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Thanks 🙂
Research is so important and fun. I remember researching plane crashes and gun shot wounds before for a story to make sure the details were realistic. It totally works 🙂
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If at first you don’t know, learn about it – and now you do! 😀
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Great advice! I have characters on each story that reflects some of my attitude/emotion or what I’d do if I found myself in their situation. But I limit that to a few – so the characters wouldn’t mirror each other. I take attitude and emotional reactions from others as well.
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Thanks 🙂 Good point, we should definitely limit the amount of characters we base on ourselves in a single story!
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This is the best article I’ve read on this subject. And thanks for sharing Neisser’s 5 ways we know ourselves. I hadn’t seen this before, and it’s eye-opening! Happy release day, Scottie!
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Thanks Raimey 🙂 Neisser was one of my favourites from my MA: It’s amazing what psychologists can teach us about writing!
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I like your examples too. Your character feels so real, especially the detail of focusing on his mother’s Amulet. Thank you for a great post 🙂
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Thanks 🙂 I enjoyed writing his story!
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What a wealth of information for us to consider when building characters. Thank you.
JQ Rose
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You’re welcome 🙂
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Some terrific ideas for characters!
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Thanks 🙂 To my surprise the assignment actually helped me work out a few issues with my WIP outline too!
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I enjoyed this immensely. Your use of Fullmetal Alchemist as a springboard is a great hook.
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Thanks 😀 I adore Fullmetal Alchemist!
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It might scratch the surface but it also gives us much to think on. Great post.
Anna from elements of emaginette
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Thanks 🙂 There’s so much psychologists like Neisser can teach us about writing. I never would’ve thought to look at their theories without the MA!
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Excellent advice! The bit about calling on your own emotions and experiences when creating a character is right out of actors’ training!
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Thanks 🙂 I’ll have to look into books on acting as that sounds like it might help my writing!
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Yes! Exactly. If I used my own life verbatim my stories would be pretty boring (LOL) but I do use my experiences and emotions to enhance the story I want to tell.
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Same, I’ll leave out the boring stuff and reuse the interesting bits 😀
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I always love using my personal experiences in some way. I hadn’t heard of the Source as Self technique, but am going to have to research it some more. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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I was surprised how well using personal experience in my writing worked 🙂 The chapter we read for university on Self as Source was in ‘The Self on the Page’ by Celia Hunt and Fiona Sampson (page 35 onward). It was a pretty interesting read 🙂
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Thanks for the extra info. I’ll check it out. 🙂
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I totally agree. No matter how far fetched a narrative, there has to be something to relate to.
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Exactly, if I can’t relate to something (usually characters!) I’ll put a book down!
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Great breakdown! I definitely should use more of the places I’ve been to in my own writing, thanks for the tip!
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Thanks 🙂 Using real places does seem to make settings more real, at least for me!
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Excellent post! I esp love your point about using our own emotional experiences. Peculiarexus and Matt are partially based off myself, with some of my own struggles (though I’ve differentiated them, which goes to your point about separating character from self to not have a Mary Sue character) and that definitely helped. As for personality – would personality traits that one desires to have also count in that regard? For example, I really wish I could be super calm and courageous – which is what inspired me to write Steph that way. Regardless, I found your tip about using the various selves (ecological, conceptual, etc.) very helpful! I’ll keep them in mind (the various selves). Last but not least, your tip about using real places, animals, etc. is awesome. It makes the story easier to write and I can definitely picture the story more. I think that’s why I base my stories in real life cities and base fictional places off real locations.
Great post! Love your posts! :).
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Thanks 🙂 I totally think we can use personality traits we want to have, as they are often opposite to the ones we do have, like calm and nervous are.
It’s definitely easier to base settings on real places, although when I do I have to make sure I describe them fully. I can visualise the places so well in my head but sometimes I forget to write enough detail in the story!
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You’re very welcome! Your posts are great 🙂 Good point. I think I’ll give some characters traits I wish I had 🙂
Haha, no worries. Same happens to me. I end up not having enough details and my betas will tell me “more descriptions needed!” Though sometimes, they’ve also told me that I’ve had unnecessary details, like a character pointing with their left index finger (betas said I didn’t need to be that specific LOL); the balance it’s not easy LoL.
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[…] the first two parts in this post and saved the final part for next week! Last week’s post on using life experiences to improve fantasy writing goes into a bit of detail on the creation of this piece […]
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Wow, very good advice! You made some excellent points here about using aspects of things that you know and making them work for your story (like basing a dragon’s mannerisms off of a cat). Will definitely keep these in mind, thanks for the thought-provoking post!
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You’re welcome 🙂
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[…] summarised my assignment, on using life experiences to improve fantasy stories, in a blog post. The final modules will (hopefully) be better. I won’t have to use first […]
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I definitely use emotions in my writing… but I wouldn’t say I really identify with any of my characters and some of them are almost completely unlike me. I like a variety of very different but also highly developed characters.
I think one can combine mannerisms based off of various animals for a fantasy creature. After all, you would expect something like a dragon to, say, be a little like a cat in one way, perhaps, and more like, say, a lizard or a bird (of course, different birds have different mannerisms – compare a dove to a robin to a crow to an owl) in another way?
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Same, most of my characters are very different to me, even when I do use my past or emotions.
Exactly, if we use real animals as basis for fantasy creatures it makes it easier to relate to them 🙂
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