Yep, it’s me and Mom.

The week before I was born, my parents’ car gave out, and they found a used convertible that seemed to be just what they wanted. They bought it, feeling sporty and whatever the word for ‘cool’ was back then. They drove to the hospital in it the night I was born, all full of hope and enthusiasm. In those days, you stayed several days after giving birth, so I was 5-6 days old before Dad was able to bring me and Mom home. 

On the way home it started raining, so Dad pulled over to raise the top.  Apparently this was the first time they attempted to do that, because they found it was rusted in place.  This was before the quick-stops and self-service gas stations with the canopies that you find on the highway every 500 feet, so Mom got out a blanket and draped it over her head and arms, sheltering me, the new infant, and they ‘rushed’ home at 40 mph in the pouring rain.  Even that pace was too much, for Dad pulled into the garage of their rented home so quickly that the wet tires slid on the concrete floor and they bashed the wall in the front.

It’s a funny story now, but for a young couple with a new baby and a tight budget, it was terrible.

These are the things that make life – and your writing – real. Even if you have aliens and planets with three suns, people (beings, if you prefer), have experiences. Aliens have trouble coping with cooler climes if they are from a planet whose average temperature is 200 degrees. Fish can’t breathe out of water. In the 1800’s, a ride home in the rain could have taken several hours in an open wagon, and maybe there was a loose wheel… 

Years ago, in a televised interview, author Steven King was asked where he came up with his horrific ideas. His answer? He takes common fears and uncommon tragedies and expands them. I heard Nicholas Sparks speak at a local college a few years ago, and he revealed that he relies on personal events of family and friends for inspiration. The trick is that readers identify with the basics of all these things. Many people are afraid of stray dogs or clowns, and suffer breakdowns over deaths of loved ones.  

If they can do it, so can we. Call on your experiences, those of friends and family, or even stories in the headlines. Give them a twist, exaggerate them, and use them to show your readers a touch of your characters’ personal lives.

Alice knew from previous meetings that the Duchess’s cook always carried a large pepper-box with her, so when the courtroom at the Knave’s trial burst into sneezing fits, she knew who was coming. Your characters need those signatures, too.  Giving them little habits like smacking gum, and issues like hating Chihuahuas, makes their personalities unique and makes the characters sympathetic, or expands our dislike of them. Either way, the reader gets hooked and becomes invested in the outcome of your story.

Life is strange. Use it.