Is your novel inspired by personal experiences?

I think much of my plots (in various novels) are derived from my own personal experiences, or feelings. I story isn't scene for scene, but more of an idea that I run with. Sometimes I think my novels are a journal of what I wish had really happened.

Does anybody else find their inspiration from personal experiences?

Ugh. This is a tricky question.

Writing is escapism for me, and I'm not particularly inspired to write about what's going on in my life. But then again, there's always some sort of autobiographical element to my writing.

For example, suicide tends to appear in my stories (not much as an event but its aftermath and the way families cope with it). The way family is affected by it. Last year, one of my character's had a father who committed suicide. This year, it my MC's brother (whom she never met, because he died before she was born). When something like this happens when you're a kid, it affects you to the point of becoming a "normal" part of your life and you don't really know what is like to be any different. I guess it's the theme I explore.

Also, characters with Asperger's seem to appear in my writing. This year will be my first attempt at this (my male MC has Asperger's), but I have many story ideas with characters who have this condition.

On a less serious note, my experience with directing school plays sure influenced my plot. Actually, it all started as a mind game. I don't direct plays anymore, but sometimes I think about novels that I like and I think about the ways they can be adapted for stage. So I was thinking about the Virgin Suicides. It's such a good book, with unique, amazing narration, and I was thinking what it would be like to make it into a play (how to handle the narration? ) So I made my MC adapt the novel for stage and actually make it into a play.

(Now, for the record, I still think it's almost impossible to adapt this novel for stage, or film, but I can always make my characters try to make it into a decent play).

this year's novel isn't based on experiences, but the narrator's personality and outlook on life is very much based on my own (despite it being unintentional).
in fact, i guess i could say that all four main characters represent a part of my personality: one is my idealistic/optimistic side, one's my aggressive side, one's my confused/lost side and one is my depressive/deluded side.
note how all of this was unintentional.

Not necessarily my own personal experiences, but inspired by others' personal experiences.

My nano last year had to deal with a girl whose father committed suicide and that did actually happen around where I live. The family went to my church and everything. It was such a sad event, especially for her since she was fairly close to her father and felt that the whole thing could have been avoided, turning back to those "what if's". The church youth group (when I was a part of it) went on a trip to a conference and she happened to be in my group where we discuss our feelings and such (it sounds sappy, I know). She began explaining how she hasn't been the same since her dad's death and right there I knew that was a story that shouldn't be forgotten.

As for this year, also another experience I swiped. My friend's brother's girlfriend has strained their relationship where she became obsessed with him and his whereabouts (she goes to a college in NY and he goes to a college in FL) and demanded to talk to him 24/7 (you know, facebook, skype, twitter, etc...) Him, he started feeling smothered and had to break off the relationship. Yet, she still calls him and even calls his mom. She uses tricks to get him to listen to her and talk to her. All the while, he's just trying to move on.

Yes, I steal real life experiences. For shame! :/

I agree with andifadoubledeckerbus. My five main girl characters represent different parts of who I am as well. Sometimes I realize I'm writing characters that are like my friends too. Sometimes I "steal" real life experiences, but alter them so they fit the plot of my story. This year one of my characters is in a situation that I'm dealing with right now. Maybe writing about it will help me out :)

Yes and no. I was ten years old (turned eleven in the middle of it) during the 2000 Presidential election, and I sort of followed it for the first time, but I had a friend who worked for the local campaign office. And I was a month off of my twelfth birthday on 9/11. It changed my life...a lot. And I had a friend whose father worked at the Pentagon.

So when I started plotting my novel for this year, I thought about that and decided to use both events, from the point of view of someone more interested in politics and slightly older than I was (he's 14 in 2000). But...I wasn't as close to it as Jackson is.

Sort of. I've somehow become a loner, and my main characters have somehow become on the outside. (One orphaned and the queen b--- at her schol, well, she lives up to the title imo, the other moves to another country, and her parents were immigrants to her homeland to begin with). I also came up with a children's story about a boy whose big sis has a health scare (a la my niece's anemia and her brothe during that time). I also came up with more stories about them that spun off of that.

Sort-of... I wanted to write from the perspective of someone with cancer (or another serious illness) because I was often sick as a child/teen and didn't really read anything like that. There are books with characters who have cancer, but you don't really get their perspective. So my medical experiences feed into the story that way, though my character has a different disease arc - it's definitely helpful just to have a general idea of procedures and experiences she would have. I purposely gave her a perspective that's different than mine though, and the basis for her views is from a person I worked with briefly. I mostly chose to do that just because I thought it would be interesting to write from another perspective. I do have a supporting character who is similar to me, because I thought our interactions (me and the real person) were really strange and it would be fun to write into the novel.

And, that's about it... we're very different people... I've never been ice skating at all while my FMC competes on the national level! Of course I pull in details or experiences from my life, but in an adaptive way.

Writing for me has always been a form of escapism, as I usually write about people with much more interesting experiences than I have. I've mostly written fantasy and science fiction, though the characters are usually around my age.

This year, I'm quite nervous because I'm doing something close to life. I am in a high school band, and I play the flute, and though I am not a "band filer" my friend is (my other friend is the "assistant band filer", but she is the polar opposite of Sally), which is where I got the idea for my story. The music that's lost is something we played last year, though I originally put it in so my characters could make a bad joke. The difficult thing for me this year is to not make it too autobiographical. My main character is very different from me in personality and way of thinking. This presents its own challenge- how would someone in a similar situation but very different from me react and think? The other characters are not based on people I know, but the stereotypical traits of people fleshed out in what I hope are original ways. The plot of the story is also something that never happened, to any extent, in our band.

Still, in such a familiar setting it's impossible not to borrow from things I know, and in some of my characters I see blatant borrowing from real life- then I start thinking... "What would (real life person) do? This character is pretty much turning out to be him/her." It probably isn't a good thing but is amusing.

This year's nano is partially inspired by my own life. I have struggled with depression and I have been bullied. The rest is fiction, though.

What I'm most worried about portraying is the parent's divorce in my novel. I've never been through anything like that, so it will be difficult to write... especially since these parents will be very present in this novel, not absent like in my previous ones.

Sh! Don't tell anyone this, but my MC is based largely on my sister. She's got such an interesting life (and on the contrary mine's so boring...). I can't think of anything she hasn't been through as of yet and she's only 22 years old. My story takes her as she was when she was 16, reages her down to 13/14 and mixes elements of her life forwards and backwards a few years. The third person point of view I'm using is rather far from normal 3rd person stories. You can't get into her head because I never got into my sister's head.

I never was here and you never read any of this.

I think that I always take experiences from my real life and put them into my writing. My NaNo this year is about a girl who finds a secret admirer note years after it was originally sent.

I was going through some stuff from high school when I found some notes I didn't remember ever seeing them before. Then I got the idea of a main character who is in 11th grade in high school & finds a secret admirer letter that was dated from freshmen year.

Also, when I was in high school some of my friends and I decided to send anonymous notes to one of our male friends. We created a fake identity and would randomly send him things (in his locker, to his house, to his class) when he least expected it. But they weren't love letters more of "hey, you're cool and here's some neat things" and funny stuff. We made random letters like limericks, cut out magazines with a treasure hunt, and once made a tshirt and told him when to wear it. It went on for months and was probably one the most fun things about jr year. It became this huge thing where a bunch of people were trying to figure out who was sending the stuff and would look forward to the next thing. Of course, they were shocked to find out that it was 4 people. Oh and the guy thought that it was awesome (and understood from the beginning that the sender(s) only liked him in a platonic way).

Actually, part of what my MC is going through is hugely based on something that happened ot me and what I've felt/experienced as a result of it - which isn't ususally the way I write. But in this case it's really something I want to explore. A few years ago I was mugged in a park, and the feelings I had about it since then - apathy to paranoia/fear to a little bit of recklessness - is something that I really want to explore with my MC.

Yes, mine is inspired by my high school experience. There are major changes all the way around, but the plot is similar to my own life. This will be my first major writing project, and it is something I feel like I want to get off my chest.

The MC is not me, but very similar. It is a first person account, and it will mostly be my voice in largely fictional scenarios.

Every novel I write is influenced by my personal experiences. :) But this one, I think, will be heavily influenced. A lot of it will be pulled in from things I've gone through. I hope it works and I don't get bogged down in details.

For me, it's more based on feelings than experiences. My MC starts out being really fearful and tense. So in a word, yes.

I'm writing about band camp. I went to band camp. However, I didn't die there, nor did any of my friends. So yes and no. :D

I certainly draw from my own experiences and emotions for my stories, but I can't say that my NaNo novel is inspired by personal experience. It's about a girl who is a dictator's personal assistant, so…yeah.

With my MC's antisocial tendencies and financial struggles, definitely. The age and high school grade is the same, too. Everything else, however, is totally made up.

I think that a lot of my stories are in some way or other about myself. And I think its sub-conscious too, cause I don't realize 'til after I've written it. :P