There are some hidden dangers in writing. I think I can explain what they might be with a bit of my history. I had written a story that included a sex scene between a wife and a very abusive husband. In that sex scene, the woman is sobbing and her husband misinterprets it as sexual excitement. One of my friends who is a writer had recently divorced her husband. At first, she accused me of using her story in what I had written. She was very sure she had told me about instances like one I had used in the story in her marriage. It took me quite awhile to convince her that I had not violated her privacy by using her story in my story. I had to go back over the story with her and show her step-by-step how I had created not only the brutality of the husband, but also his total lack of understanding of his wife. She didn’t understand how I could describe the humiliation and hurt of being forced to have sex with her husband who thought her crying and sobbing came from the excitement of sex without knowing her story. I think what finally convinced her I had not “stolen” her story was that she couldn’t remember ever talking to me about her divorce.
The hidden dangers in writing is a friend may see themselves in one of your stories and accuse you of stealing their experiences. If you think friends are bad that way, you might want to consider what a lover might think of something you written. Perhaps in another time, I will tell you a bit of my history about that as well.
