Every Experience is Potential Fodder for a Future Novel.

Every Experience is Potential Fodder for a Future Novel.

If you're a writer, one way to help cope with a bad experience is to realize that it might come in handy someday when you're writing. Years ago, as I was being wheeled down a hospital corridor to go into surgery, I kept telling myself to pay attention. I may want to use this someday in a book. What does this moment feel like? What are the sights, smells, sounds? Of course, the irony is, what I was feeling at the moment was that the moment might someday be useful in a book. Oh well, I guess I can always write about a writer going into surgery and thinking about how that might be a good experience to put in a book some day.
In "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," my main character's parents turn fundamentalist christian when he is a teenager. I use statements that a born-again relative of mine used in conversations with me when writing dialogue Jim has with his parents.
Likewise, in "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round" I have Bonnie's father, Ted, and her mother Karen make some bizarre comments to the mysterious Rachel that someone once said to me.
So remember when things get bad, at least your gaining another tidbit for a great scene in a novel.