The Person Behind the Fiction Writer

The Person Behind the Fiction Writer

Some of the most common questions I get from readers of my work are “How much of the story is about you?” and “How much truth is there to the story?”

While I’m not sure about other writers, I can say that I personally have built a great deal of my work around many factual people, events, emotions, and experiences that I’ve encountered in my life. Not to say that the story is completely about me or completely about someone that I know, but each story that I write is written because I’m tied to it in some way or another, even if it’s through an association that I have with someone else.

I tend to write out of inspiration about experiences or emotions on intense issues. For instance, in my debut novel, The Baker's Dozen, I tackle deep issues like depression, unplanned pregnancy, family secrets and incest. The story is a conglomerate of associations, experiences and emotions that I have encountered along the way that I was inspired to build upon and share as a means of inspiring others by showing how we can rise above such adversities.

In my sophomore novel, HALF, which is slated for release this coming spring, I tackle identity issues from the viewpoint of the main character, Carmen O’Malley, a young biracial woman. Although the story itself is a work of fiction, readers will encounter experiences and emotions that are factual, which I was able to lend to the story’s credibility.

In doing radio, blog, and magazine interviews I find that many of my hosts are intrigued by whether or not there’s any “fact to my fiction.” I always say that it’s a work of fiction that contains fragments of factual events or characters as well. I never point out which is which, because I don’t think it should matter to the reader, but the fact alone that a reader knows that “somewhere in between these lines someone has really encountered this” seems to make the story that much more interesting!


Some writers write for entertainment, some for inspiration, and some for the sheer love of writing. But no matter what their reason for writing is, I believe that the work of every fiction writer is sprinkled with bits and pieces of themselves and/or the lives of people whom they associate with. I happen to love the idea that a writer could have such a creative mind that they can actually build a great story around an experience that they or someone they know has encountered.
The sculptor has but a ball of clay in his hands; yet he molds that clay into an amazing work of art that people can look at and appreciate. So is the fiction writer, so simply amazing, that he can craft as beautiful a work of art straight from his heart.

SD Denny, Author
2009 African-American Literary Award Nominee
http://www.sddenny.com/