Someone who has now become a good friend of the family warned my husband to avoid writers when we started dating. The word "crazy" was tossed about. Luckily, my husband had already known me for over a decade and decided not to heed the warning. However, fellow pencil jockeys, I have to ask--How much validity is there to this common opinion/misconception? Do writers have a tendency to create chaos in their lives in order to gain a little fodder?

I can't answer for anyone else, but my answer is no. I do not. In fact, I have a difficult time writing about the heartache I've experienced. I've been attempting to pen the saga of my parents' divorce and my mother's subsequent death for over 20 years, and I plunge into a terrible pit of depression every time I try. I have approached the story from several different angles over the years, and I still can't make it materialize. The sadness of the events that transpired does not inspire me to create. My first failed marriage? Nope. There will never be a novel about that. My father's death, the people I've cut from my life, the seven car wrecks I've survived as a passenger? Nope. Nope. And hell, no.

When I sit down to write, I want to get lost in the worlds I create, worlds rich with characters who, admittedly, probably do resemble real people, but still... I write to escape, to glorify, not to overcome. I love my pretty fiction.

Helluva Luxe stemmed from the worst heartache I have ever suffered: My breakup with a bar. But I chose to take that part of my life, which was oftentimes ugly, and turn it into something magical, fantastical, a memory I could hold in place of the real ones.

I am not saying my methods are correct. There is no "correct" way to create a good story, aside from proper grammar and clever story telling, of course. But I would like to know if I'm among the majority or the minority.

So, how much of your fiction is regurgitated from orchestrated pain?