Many
writers have had dreadful and I mean dreadful
experiences. As a result, their books have become fictionalized versions of
their life stories. Some of them have built their life around these terrible
ordeals and triumphed in channeling their passion into their works. Others have
not been very lucky and eventually, they choked on the dirt of their
indecision.
Ten
great writers are cited here followed by a brief bio of their travail and/or
triumphs. You get to decide which ones pulled through and which ones blew it.
1.
H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)
 |
| creativebuzz.com |
Lovecraft’s
nearly five decades of suffering spawned his weird but genius writing. As a
matter of fact, his life story is stranger than fiction! His dad was acutely psychotic and passed away in an
asylum. Later on, his mom hit by hysteria
was also confined to the same mental home.
Lovecraft
suffered from night terrors–a rare parasomnia
disorder. His poem, Night Gaunt was
spawned off his fear of what H.P called night
gaunt. Prior to his high school graduation, Lovecraft experienced a nervous breakdown. He married and moved
to Red Hook in New York only to be separated from his wife when he couldn’t land
a job. These are some of the unusual experiences, which fed one of the weirdest
minds of the 2oth century. Lovecraft was one of the first writers to combine
horror and science fiction.
2.
Stephen King (1947- )
 |
| blog.sevenponds.com |
King
considered the Master of Modern Horror,
had a disturbed childhood. When King was just two, his father abandoned his
family leaving his mother to take care of two kids without any stable source of
income.
As
a child, King witnessed his friend struck and killed by a train. The ordeal
left him speechless with shock, for days. It is believed this event, among
others, triggered his interest in horror. King once recalled being drawn to the
horror genre after reading books by H.P. Lovecraft his dad left behind. A
onetime drug addict, King’s life story recurs again and again throughout his
fiction.
You undoubtedly have your own
thoughts, interests, and concerns, and they have arisen, as mine have, from
your experiences and adventures as a human being… and you should use them in
your work.
Stephen King, On
Writing.
3. Danielle
Steel (1947- )
 |
| keloise2630.blogspot.com |
Steel
has her romance stories cut out for her often
involving rich families facing a crisis, threatened by dark elements such as
jail, fraud, blackmail and suicide.
Steel
married a banker divorced him and married a man jailed on robbery and rape charges, in the
prison canteen. She divorced him in
1978 but the relationship spawned Passion's Promise and Now and Forever, the
two novels that launched her successful career (which incidentally has garnered
about 800 million copies in sales making her the bestselling author alive).
Next, she married a former drug addict… Do you see a connection between the
general storyline in Steel’s books written above and her life story?
Steel’s
mother was the daughter of a diplomat and this gave her access to study the
life of the wealthy and famous (stuff which make up the main ingredients of her
prose).
Her
parents divorced when she was eight and this could have stimulated her hunger
for affection, which she tried to satiate
by writing romance novels.
4.
Terry McMillan (1951- )
 |
| ourdailyblast.com |
McMillan,
the author of the book-to-movie, Waiting
to Exhale, which featured Whitney Houston in a leading role, has quite the profile
for a writer with books based on her life story.
In
1998, Terry McMillan hooked up with a Jamaican named Jonathan Plummer who was
soon to set McMillan’s heart plummeting to the pits.
McMillan
was in her late 40s and Plummer in his early 20s (see where this is headed,
yet?). In December, 2004 Plummer told McMillan he was gay and the relationship
ended. McMillan’s book How Stella Got Her
Groove Back which, has a similar storyline and was adapted into a movie
featuring Whoopi Goldberg, was inspired by this episode from her life story.
Four
down, six to go. Catcha next time around.
Bleed
your pen.
Akpan
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