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Every writer I know has trouble writing.
Joseph Heller

Not just any personal experience but those where a friend looks bad and may recognize their young self in that character. I was moving along on my rewrite yesterday at a good pace. When I went to bed I was still thinking about it and woke up this morning wanting to rewrite the entire first chapter. I don’t mean just do another rewrite. I’m talking about writing the first chapter again. The reason I want to do this is because all the incidents I Included in that first chapter are actually from my childhood. Don’t get me wrong, all the names were changed to protect the innocent but I was afraid someone would recognize themselves and I could end up losing a friend or two. I’m not talking about knocking over a liquor store or rolling a bum, or tipping cows or, and this actually happened, accidentally egging a police car. I’m talking about being eight or nine years old and doing things kids do every day. So, first thing this morning I pulled up my chair and along with a cup of coffee began to rewrite the first chapter. After the first paragraph I lost interest for today. Bummer.

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I’m curious because this is the first thing I’ve written based on things that actually happened. I’m sure it would be okay to use events that happened in a public forum but when it comes to personal experiences I believe I’ll avoid writing about those from this point on. Unless, of course, everyone involved came out looking like a Hero. Let me know what you think or if you’ve ever had something like this happen in your writing.

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