autobiographical novels

I wrote an autobiographical novel a few years ago. It's a good idea for NaNo, simply because you don't have to worry about hitting a road block whenever your plot runs out. If this is your first NaNoWriMo, I'd suggest it. You can always jazz it up a little to keep from getting bored or complacent ... exaggerate your life a bit. =]

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice!

I started out with my trip to Europe in 1988 and then quickly cut to the impending alien nanobot infiltration of the planet Earth. I figure I'll bring those two parallel plots together at some point.

Hi Richard,

Welcome. I'm actually doing that this year, my second year participating in Nano. An autobiographical novel can even be therapeutic, not to mention loads of fun and a boredom buster! You can always exaggerate the "facts," or alter the outcome of a relationship, or situation. The phone call you wish you had. The jerk that left you on the dance floor now had a great excuse. He was in a car Vs train reck. You don't find this out until your last year of med school. When he comes in on what's now a "Regular" visit to the ER. I say go for it. Have fun! I know I am.

Happy Writing :-)

After turning 40 I decided to; Live a passionate life, a life filled with becoming who I was meant to be, and being surprised. That led to a husband who led me here.

This is my first time doing this.

I think whatever i'm writing is bound to be very autobiographical.. seems like I can't figure out how to make up fiction, only write some lightly fictionalized version of things that happened to me. I've written a few pages, but I dont have a firm grasp of a specific plot other then a few obvious setups .. and I'm getting worried that I'm starting to get into a dead end very early on.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself, and say i'm glad i'm not the only one apparently writing something vaguely autobiographical. (at least starting out that way)

-mike

My first book (which I'm three chapters away from finishing) is a fictional account of my life as I went from suburbia to living in New York City mixed with a schizophrenic shift into a novel my penname is writing in the book about secret agents and the apocalypse.

I've always wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo but always forgot about it until the last moment (much like this year) but I decided to go for it anyway. So I went with a fictional autobiography that's sort of a prelude to that story, but at the same time it stands on its own, and is definitely more accessible already.

I do write comics and graphic novels, and I find that it's really easy for me to write more traditional fiction in that format/medium, but in prose I really find it difficult to deviate from autobiographical details, which is odd as when I was a teenager first writing I had the opposite problem. Hmmm.

Anyways, great to be in this with all of you.

K

http://www.tentonstudios.com/webcomics/liquidfury/
LEGEND OF LIQUID FURY

http://writeclubpodcast.blogspot.com/
Write Club! the Writing & Comicbook Blog and Podcast

http://thetowerofbrahma.blogspot.com/
The Tower of Brahma: an experimental autobio

I'm actually doing a memoir, so definitely straight up non-fiction. This year I'm actually finishing off the one I started last year. 100k+ words will make it nice and meaty :)

Good luck!

Lara

Lara
i eat (and blog) / i tweet / take pix / occasionally tumbl

hi richard,

I did nanowrimo in 2007, and used it purely as an opportunity to write a memoir- since I didn't start until November 15, I really needed a steady source of words to complete the 50g. (It helped that I was unemployed). I would say just write, and whatever you compose is what wanted to come out, I feel. Good luck!
Tamar

I'm doing something autobiographically rooted as well. However I changed the family names, transferred the setting outside of Europe and slightly altered some other things.

This is my first NaNo.

The unnamed should not be taken for the nonexistent.
~ Catherine A. MacKinnon

I've just changed mine from essentially one (a Nanny Diaries-esque version of my first year of teaching that I just couldn't get into) to one based on a lot of crap that I've been going through in one situation in the last coupe of years. I had planned to do this one earlier but change the world (as in artistic world) in which it existed and names and a few of the situations so it wasn't so obvious, but for the time I've just said screw it and am writing it as it's happened and will deal with changing it later.

Writing as therapy. Gotta love it!

I'm not really wrestling with a dilemma; I definitely wanted to do an autobiographical "novel"l; but based only on humor. I liken it to Dave Barry meets Terry Pratchett's footnote fetish. I'm throwing in a few lists like in Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book lists for added ... list-yness, I guess. I think a memoir is great for NaNo because you never have to worry about material. Plus it may trigger some ideas for a novel in the future!

Hi All,
I'm doing a semi auto biographical novel this yeas as well, and yes, I do believe this can be therapy too, which is why I caution anyone taking on this genre. Be prepared to be thrown and ultimately unprepared. Yes, we know what are lives are and were. However, looking back can do things to us that we are not prepared for. We might start feeling as the title of my book suggests; Bogged down. Memories can feel warm and life can look better than it really was. And then again, the bad memories can pull us back into feeling as though we are reliving those situations.

Olivia44 , I too have changed names and in some instances location. I think that helps a bit. In truth I have tried to tackle this genre before. The problem was as I mentioned above I was pulled back into those events. They plagued me day and night. I mean I wrote them, talked about the ad nauseam, etc. It even went so far as for me to have physical manifestations of the stresses I'd already lived through. I lost sleep and weight. I scared myself and those around me.

So, why am I doing this again? Why am I dragging myself and my husband, (We were not together when I tried this the first time.) into this great abyss? Because, I've done it before. I know the pitfalls. I've chosen to start the story in a different place and I share this computer with a fellow Nanoer. I can't self indulge here. There's a time share with the pewter. Also being part of a collective like this and not doing this on my own. Can help me feel less alone with all of this. Lastly, but not least important here, is that there is an externally imposed deadline.

Live the best life you can. Don't let anyone else decide what that is for you. Write the story of your life and live that story with pride!

Happy writing all!

After turning 40 I decided to; Live a passionate life, a life filled with becoming who I was meant to be, and being surprised. That led to a husband who led me here.

Hey Everyone,

This is my first time doing this - I just signed up about an hour ago - and I'm going for the semi-atuobiographical route as well. I've always wanted to write down my past as a way to remember what I've forgotten and try to get a hold on a very confusing time period. But to just recount what happened? Well I don't know if that would be very healing or interesting. So I'd like to make it fantastical and see if by making it fiction and taking it to an extreme, I can heal some wounds, play with that inner child, and well...just see if I can do it.

Good luck all!

Hi everyone,

I'm so glad someone posted about this. It's my first nanowrimo, and I'm also doing an autobiographical thing. Although it's all disjointed and terribly boring. But I just want to reach the goal, and I figure I'll worry about making it good later. I'm actually thinking of rewriting it over the next year to change the protagonist from me to a character loosely based on a friend of mine. Maybe I'll use her personality and put her in various situations that have happened to me (and some crazier ones that haven't). I mean, in the end I really don't want to do a memoir thing, but what I want most of all is to write 50,000 words by Nov. 30 :)

I really has been easier once I started writing about my own experiences. I had some fiction ideas when I started, but then I figured better to hold off on them for now because I was already feeling some writer's block.

S

Although I just realized I haven't quite fictionalized it enough per nano rules, so I'll have to go back and mess with it a bit so that I feel comfortable calling it "fiction." Might take me a while, too. GASP! And I was just rejoicing that I was slightly ahead on my word count... ugh....