Personality revealed

Is there a danger of revealing one's own personality in fiction writing ? I promised More on that Tomorrow, so here we are.

Some books are written with a message at the heart and give out constant little drumbeats of reminders in the pages. Assuming that message is meaningful to the author, and by that I mean verging towards the really, really meaningful, then I suppose some of the author’s feelings have been revealed. But the average reader won’t know unless the author states publicly, via a blog or during radio/newspaper interviews, that she or he cares deeply about this particular topic. And the chances of the reader knowing that fact and remembering it when reading the book must be quite slim.

Imagination is a wonderful thing. It's my belielief that no correlation of assets and traits can be assumed between an author and her protagonist. A book full of adventure and brave heroics may have been written by a sit-at-home-never-do-anything-type person who has a wonderfully fertile imagination and learned the difficult craft of writing believable fiction.

Every writer who has written a sexy love scene and then cringed as she thought Help! My mother, father, or aunty is going to read this knows what I mean. And of course, the stock and truthful answer to any smart comments is But I made it all up! It’s not true!

How many writers write real love scenes? Scenes that accurately recall their own sexual experience? Or detail their private, personal love habits? Very few, I would suspect. A germ of reality may be there, but much embellished and polished. (Not to say that authors don't have great sex lives; it's just that I don't suppose they put it all on their pages for everyone to see!)

How many writers read love scenes written by other writers, like a phrase or a word and use it in their own work? How many love scenes have been written and read over a person’s lifetime? Thousands, and some of it gets reproduced. Not exactly plagiarism, but a sort of template that sticks in the mind and twists according to need and personality when a new book is being written. Many years ago I read a Stanley Winchester book. The only scene I remember from the whole damn novel was Him making love to Her on the Telephone table in the Hall with Windows onto the street while She continued a telephone conversation with her Mother.
Now why has that stuck in my mind when the rest of the book has vanished? Because it shocked me. Surprised, jolted, maybe. I wasn't shocked in the censorious this-should-not-be-printed way, but that someone could contemplate such a scene.

Now, I haven’t had any of my characters make love on a telephone table in the hall (the fact that they didn’t have telephones in the sixteenth century may have something to do with it) but the “template” of that scene is always lurking there at the back of my mind, and I can find many ways to translate that into my stories (with or without a telephone).
Not many care to write of their personal knowledge of sex, I would guess. For one thing it would be a violation of their private relationship, and for another it’s a rare man or woman who constantly experiences the kind of swooning rich passion and fulfilment authors give their lucky heroes and heroines. In spite of detractors of Harlequin, Mills & Boon who claim the contrary, we all know real life just isn’t like that.

On other themes - death, rivalry, injustice - many of the same argument might be applied. But these themes often do resonate with writers, and may well be a public telling of a personal event. In such cases, it seems to me that people could match a book theme with an author’s personal demons and that the author wants this to happen. If the writer doesn't want publicity, the only people who will know the truth will be close friends and family. If they know already, why worry that they will read about it in your book?