On Writing : Do You Write From Experience or Escape? by Kat Spencer

I write to express. I write not just to tell stories, but to make sense of the world within and around me. The frustrations I’ve faced aren’t obstacles—they're questions, unresolved truths, and echoes of deeper meaning. Through writing, I seek to transform them into something that resonates.

Hi, Kat Spencer. I mainly write to entertain people. I write from experience sometimes. I've never thought about building a world to get away from something personal.

I write from experience in my current novel that takes people into a moral, truth telling roller coaster medical drama / thriller. The next book is something I've always wanted to do - rewrite Chaucer's Canterbury Tales into modern-day movie making.

This is a great question Kat Spencer. I think I start out writing from experience but it organically grows into an escape. With the experience comes the theme and from the theme, the message of the story grows. After that, I just want to enjoy the thing.

Experience:" Nobody's Heroes"...I tell people the idea occurred to me when I was laying face down in a rice paddy taking fire when my platoon was ambushed by the Viet Cong.

"I'll Never Find Another You"...inspired by the on and off romantic relationship I had with one woman from 1967 to 2012 (still in love with her). "In Self Defense?" inspired by a 1973 study I worked on with Johns Hopkins University on how your body language can determine if you're likely to be a crime victim"

I'll take an experience and find a way to put it into a story.

Great responses, everyone! Appreciate you taking the time to reply.

Truthfully, It's always a combination of both. I can't help but include a part of me in what I write, but it is also escapism into a realm that differs from current reality.

I write to escape real life. I just happen to be more honest when I’m writing.